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Parliamentary Government (parliamentary + government)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences66%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting33%

Selected Abstracts

The missing piece: Measuring portfolio salience in Western European parliamentary democracies

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2005
JAMES N. DRUCKMAN
Portfolios constitute an important payoff, not just because they provide access to patronage, but because influence over policy decisions tends to go with control over the key government portfolios. It is easy to discover which and how many portfolios each party holds in any government, but what is missing is accurate measurement of the value or salience of these portfolios. Some attempts have been made to measure portfolio salience, but they have lacked one or more of the following properties: cross-national scope, country-specific measurement, coverage of the full set of postwar portfolios, measurement by multiple experts and measurement at the interval level. In this article, we present a new data contribution: a set of portfolio salience scores that possesses all of these properties for 14 Western European countries derived from an expert survey. We demonstrate the comprehensiveness and reliability of the ratings, and undertake some preliminary analyses that show what the ratings reveal about parliamentary government in Western Europe. [source]

The European Parliament and the Commission Crisis: A New Assertiveness?

GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2002
David Judge
This article examines two claims made about the "Commission crisis" of 1999: first, that the accountability of the Commission to the European Parliament (EP) was significantly increased; and, second, that the model of parliamentary government in the European Union (EU) was advanced by events in 1999. In analyzing the crisis and its consequences, this article focuses upon the powers of dismissal and appointment, and what these powers reveal about the capacity of the EP both to hold the Commission responsible for its collective and individual actions and to influence its policy agenda. If a parliamentary model is to develop in the EU, the negative parliamentary powers of censure and dismissal have to be balanced by the positive powers of appointment and enhanced executive responsiveness. On both counts,dismissal and appointment,the 1999 "Commission crisis" did not point to the clear and unambiguous dawning of a "genuine European parliamentary democracy." [source]

Framing Greater France Between The Wars

JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2001
Gary Wilder
This essay analyzes the relationship between France as an imperial nation-state and the discourse of Greater France that intensified during the interwar period. I am interested in the way that the figure of Greater France sought to stage and reconcile , not justify, rationalize, or mystify , structural contradictions between republican and imperial systems of government. I argue that there is an intrinsic relationship between colonial discourse and its corresponding political form. By posing questions about the status we assign to colonial ideology through the analysis of a series of influential colonial texts, this essay pays special attention to the dissociation of nationality and citizenship that characterized a political form composed of a metropolitan parliamentary government articulated with a colonial administrative regime. I hope to reframe the familiar discussion of the proliferating representations of empire that circulated in metropolitan France after World War One. The figure of la plus grande France that developed then allows us to interrogate the French imperial nation-state at a doubly paradoxical historical conjuncture characterized by the consolidation of both the republic and the empire, on the one hand, and by unprecedented crises of the republic and colonial legitimacy, on the other. Interwar imperialism produced qualitative and evaluative distinctions between different French colonies but I will focus on the more general conceptions of the empire as such that circulated through the discourse of Greater France. [source]

The democratic deficit: Paul Martin and parliamentary reform

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 4 2003
Peter Aucoin
In this article, we first examine what is required to make the reforms work according to his measures of success. We then consider why he has restricted his assault on the democratic deficit to the reform of Parliament. Third, we consider whether parliamentary reform is sufficient to address the discontents and criticisms of Canadian government that have given rise to the perceived democratic deficit. We conclude that the Martin plan, except for the review of government appointments, is sound from the perspective of representative democracy but that it will be successful in addressing the democratic deficit only to the extent that the prime minister and his reform-minded colleagues are able to convince Canadians that citizen participation in the institutional processes of reformed parliamentary government can be meaningful. Sommaire: Le projet qu'a M. Paul Martin de réformer le gouvernement parlementaire afin d'éliminer le soi-disant déficit démocratique exige une plus grande indé-pendance des députés individuels et de la Chambre des communes à l'égard du gouvemement. Dans le présent article, nous examinons tout d'abord les exigences nécessaires pour que les réformes fonctionnent selon ses mesures de succés. Nous examinons ensuite pourquoi M. Martin a restreint son attaque du déficit démocratique à la seule réforme parlementaire. Troisiémement, nous examinons si la réforme parlementaire est suffisante pour remédier aux insatisfactions et critiques envers le gouvemement canadien qui ont engendré le déficit démocratique perçu. Nous con-cluons que le plan de M. Martin, à I'exception de la revue des nominations gouveme-mentales, est solide du point de vue de la démocratie représentative. Il ne parviendra cependant à s'attaquer au déficit démocratique que dans la mesure où le Premier ministre et ses collégues soucieux de réforme seront capables de convaincre les Canadiens que la participation des citoyens aux processus institutionnels d'un gouverne-ment parlementaire réformé peut être constructive. [source]

Responsible, Representative and Accountable Government

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2001
Malcolm Aldons
As an evaluation of the health of Australia's political system, this article offers a perspective different from the lament over the loss of responsible government. It finds that responsible government is not compatible with representative democracy. Peculiar to Australia is conflict between ,responsible party government' and ,responsible parliamentary government'. Nevertheless, the system is healthy. A parliament-as-a-whole approach identifies key holistic functions of manifest and latent legitimation and accountability that bolster legitimacy. Political accountability is enhanced by the watchdog role of the media. Public accountability is enriched by the links between citizens and administrative review. Critical changes include the guarantee of senate independence and the removal of senate power over supply. These changes would confine the theory and practice of responsible government to the House of Representatives, promote accountability, and thus increase the legitimacy of Australian parliamentary democracy. [source]

Environmental justice and Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2009
Krista Harper
Abstract Environmental injustice and the social exclusion of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has roots in historical patterns of ethnic exclusion and widening socioeconomic inequalities following the collapse of state socialism and the transition to multi-party parliamentary governments in 1989. In this article, we discuss some of the methodological considerations in environmental justice research, engage theoretical perspectives on environmental inequalities and social exclusion, discuss the dynamics of discrimination and environmental protection regarding the Roma in CEE, and summarize two case studies on environmental justice in Slovakia and Hungary. We argue that, when some landscapes and social groups are perceived as ,beyond the pale' of environmental regulation, public participation and civil rights, it creates local sites for externalizing environmental harms. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]