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Committee System (committee + system)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

The Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union Committee System

GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2002
Mark Rhinard
This article investigates both the operation and the democratic legitimacy of the European Union committee system. This vast but rarely studied system is an important site of European governance, exercising an increasing amount of policy responsibility while also providing the essential arenas necessary for supranational problem solving. Despite their contribution to the success of the "European project," committees are increasingly coming under attack, notably for their lack of democratic credentials. The article employs original empirical research based on interviews and internal documentary evidence to answer a timely question: does the EU committee system strike an appropriate balance between the values of system effectiveness and democratic legitimacy? Following the application of a set of democratic principles to EU committees, the article finds that a poor balance has been struck between effectiveness and democracy. The article concludes with some operational suggestions for improving this balance in the short-to-medium term. [source]

Structure and Opportunity: Committee Jurisdiction and Issue Attention in Congress

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2006
Adam D. Sheingate
This article explores how the congressional committee system shapes the dynamics of issue attention. Consisting of what is referred to as a congressional opportunity structure, it describes how committee jurisdictions provide an important institutional context for the attention paid to new issues in congressional hearings. This is illustrated through an examination of congressional attention to biotechnology over a 30-year period. This article finds that committees with broader jurisdictions were more active in biotechnology than committees with a narrow policy remit. However, these institutional effects varied widely, even within a single policy domain. This variation suggests that issue attention depends on the degree of fit between issue characteristics and the congressional opportunity structure. More broadly, the findings here illustrate the virtues of public policy research in studies of Congress. [source]

Women on the Sidelines: Women's Representation on Committees in Latin American Legislatures

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2005
Roseanna Michelle Heath
This article explores how new groups can be marginalized after they gain representation in the legislature. We use data from six Latin American legislatures to examine the effect of institutional and political factors on how traditionally dominant male political leaders distribute scarce political resources,committee assignments,to female newcomers. In general, we find that women tend to be isolated on women's issues and social issues committees and kept off of power and economics/foreign affairs committees as the percentage of legislators who are women increases, when party leaders or chamber presidents control committee assignments, and when the structure of the committee system provides a specific committee to deal with women's issues. Thus, to achieve full incorporation into the legislative arena, newcomers must do more than just win seats. They must change the institutions that allow the traditionally dominant group to hoard scarce political resources. [source]

Universities and Industry: Does the Lambert Code of Governance Meet the Requirements of Good Governance?

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2004
Roger Buckland
The Lambert Model Code of Governance proposes to institutionalise the dominance of governors from commercial and industrial organisations as core members of compact and effective boards controlling UK universities. It is the latest expression of a fashion for viewing university governance as an overly-simple example of an obsolete system, where overweening and obstructive committee systems inhibit universities from achieving more significant and business-relevant activity. In this paper university governance is analysed in terms of classic agency analysis, in the Jensen and Meckling tradition. This suggests that governance of and in the system is complex and that, although inherited structures may indeed be deficient, the prescription of the Lambert Review is profoundly flawed and would be unlikely to achieve improvement in UK universities' competitiveness or attainment of mission. [source]