Weak government, strong parliament? A preview of Theresa May’s legislative challenges

Being the first without a majority in the Commons or the Lords for 40 years, how will May’s minority government implement any part of their legislative agenda? How will committees function? Will the smaller parties in the Commons work together? Marc Geddes, Alexandra Meakin, and Louise Thompson offer a preview of how the 2017 Parliament may function

Custodians of the Palace of Westminster (Custodians)

While the Palace of Westminster, the home of the UK Parliament requires an extensive programme of repairs and action to implement (or even agree) this programme—known as Restoration and Renewal—has been hampered. This article explores the concept of custodianship and poses a question: who are the custodians of the Palace and for whom do they preserve the Palace? Drawing on two research projects, this article explores differing interpretations of custodianship in this context, and whether decisions made about the parliamentary building are made to preserve the history of the Palace, improve working conditions in the present, or with the future of the building (and institution) in mind

The State of the Sub-discipline : Mapping Parliamentary and Legislative Studies Using a Survey and Bibliometric Analysis of Three of Its Journals

We map the current state of parliamentary and legislative studies through a survey of 218 scholars and a bibliometric analysis of 25 years of publications in three prominent sub-field journals. We identify two groupings of researchers, a quantitative methods, rational choice-favouring grouping and a qualitative methods, interpretivism-favouring grouping with a UK focus. Upon closer examination, these groupings share similar views about the challenges and future of the sub-discipline. While the sub-discipline is becoming more diverse and international, US-focused literature remains dominant and distinct from UK-focused literature, although there are emerging sub-literatures which are well placed to link them together.Peer reviewe

The double-design dilemma : political science, parliamentary crisis and disciplinary justifications

Two separate, but inter-linked, dilemmas have highlighted the importance of design-led thinking. First, the crumbling physical fabric of the Palace of Westminster has prompted a multi-billion rebuilding project, which will require the parliamentary studies specialism to engage with questions of design, space, and architecture. Separately, political science more generally has been challenged to utilize the insights of design-thinking and design-practice: a challenge to which it is culturally and methodological ill-equipped. This article considers what a design-led approach to political science looks like in theory, and in practice, in the case study of the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster. This represents a first attempt at how such a fusion could be beneficial for both politics as theory and politics as practice. The main conclusion is that although design-orientated political science is not a panacea for the challenges of modern democratic governance – in intellectual or practical terms – it does appear to offer significant potential in terms of theoretically-informed but solution focused research

Small opposition parties in a Westminster system:How did the covid-19 pandemic affect participation, decision making and oversight in the UK House of Commons?

Opposition parties are a key feature of parliamentary democracies, but their participation rights differ markedly. In the UK House of Commons, the institutional operation of the Westminster model facilitates a marked distinction between the rights afforded to the Official Opposition party, compared to smaller opposition parties. During times of crisis these Westminster model dynamics can shift, impacting opposition rights. This article uses a case study of the covid-19 pandemic to assess institutional inequalities across opposition party groups. Drawing on an analysis of over 4000 contributions to parliamentary debates and interviews with MPs, we examine the pandemic’s impact on the roles of opposition parties beyond the Official Opposition. We find that the pandemic initially generated unprecedented cooperation between the government and small opposition parties, but that this was short-lived. Longer term, the pandemic exacerbated existing institutional barriers and the size and geographical concentration of small opposition parties in the devolved nations brought disproportionate participation and oversight barriers. This suggests the need to guarantee formal opposition rights within Westminster systems beyond the Official Opposition party to ensure that all political parties have the capacity to carry out their functions during times of crisis

The Missing Voices of Disabled People in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities

The voices of GRT Disabled people were identified as ‘missing’ by a project group led by the University of Worcester in partnership with Shaping Our Lives Service User and Disability Network, a user-led organisation. This project provided a platform for the narratives of Disabled people who live in GRT communities regarding experiences in accessing health and social care services. Their potential to join with Deaf and Disabled people’s Organisations (DDPOs) and have their voices heard in key policy forums was explored. Surveys, interviews and focus groups were arranged via ‘community connectors’, within England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, this project having been the first to explore issues of disability within GRT communities. Findings were that stigma and shame were often associated with a range of Disabled people in regard to their various sensory, cognitive and neurodiverse conditions, learning disabilities or physical impairments, mental health issues or long-term health conditions. DDPOs took the general stance that they were inclusive organisations whose ‘doors were open to all’, but the reality was that only a tiny minority of GRT members were involved in such organisations and the voices of Disabled GRT members are not heard in policy debates. There was no general agreement across GRT communities about whether their Disabled members wished to combine with existing DDPOs. This project started an open conversation about the position of Disabled people within GRT communities and we all have a responsibility to take this forward. Recommendations are that DDPOs should work together with GRT organisations in the interests of including all Disabled people. A charter to promote this way of working, particularly reaching out to the missing voices of men, is seen as a positive next step

United Kingdom's Parliamentary Administration

This chapter provides a brief overview of the structural framework within which the parliamentary administration of the UK Parliament operates, and then focuses on its governance structures and how these have developed over time. Supporting each House Commission is a set of “domestic committees”—so-called because they deal not with matters “external” to Parliament but rather cover particular areas of House administration, such as finance, services and audit. These committees consist of parliamentarians, who advise the Commission on the matters within their remit. Developments in recent years have led to the establishment of departments or organisations which are technically independent of the House of Commons Service or House of Lords administration, but part of the wider governance of the institution. The chapter ends with staff and their functions, and how they support parliamentarians’ work