Conferences

The Centre organises the biennial Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians as well as other occasional conferences.

Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians

The first workshop was held in Berlin in 1994, where legislative scholars discussed practical research findings with members of parliaments from around the world. Since then, workshops have been held every two years at Wroxton College in Oxfordshire - a magnificent Jacobean mansion set in fifty acres of landscaped grounds, yet accessible from the M40 motorway, London and airports at Birmingham, Heathrow and Gatwick. Workshops are co-sponsored by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and the Centre for Legislative Studies, and each usually attracts parliamentarians and scholars from twenty of more countries.

The ninth workshop was held in July 2010. The papers delivered were as follows:

  • Promoting legislative receptivity to greater public engagement: concerns and incentives Helen R. Desfosses (State University of New York-Albany)
  • The distribution of oversight tools in the lower chambers: a comparative analysis Riccardo Pelizzo (Griffith University) and Rick Stapenhurst (The World Bank)
  • Managing Parliaments’ image Cristina Leston-Bandeira (University of Hull)
  • ‘Does personality matter?’ Personality factors as determinants of legislative recruitment and legislators’ policy preferences Heinrich Best (University of Jena)
  • Measuring parliamentary performance Ross Donohue, Ken Coghill, Colleen Lewis, Christina Neesham, and Peter Holland (Monash University)
  • Constitutions, Parliaments and political parties: reforms in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia James P. Ketterer (State University of New York) and John B. Sheffer III (University of Buffalo)
  • The Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique: from enemies to adversaries? Elisabete Azevedo (Inter-Parliamentary Union)
  • Interim governments and control function of parliaments: the Czech case Št?pán Pechá?ek (Parliamentary Institute) and Jan N?mec (University of Economics in Prague)
  • Women parliamentrians in Turkey: expectations, orientations and activities Ömer Faruk Genckaya (Marmrara University)
  • Party system change and legislative production: evidence from recent Italian politics Francesco Zucchini (Università degli studi di Milano)
  • Worlds Apart: Explaining the MPs’ expenses scandal in the UK Michael Rush (University of Exeter) and Philip Giddings (University of Reading)
  • Developing links despite the party – citizens and parliament in Portugal Cristina Leston-Bandeira (University of Hull)
  • Electoral rules and social roots in legislative recruitment: the case of Italy’s Republican Parliament Licia Claudia Papavero (Università degli studi di Milano) and Vincenzo Memoli (Universitá degli Studi di Isernia)
  • Election reform in Romania: consequences for behaviour inside the legislature Emanual Coman (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
  • Structural and political consequences of procedural changes in the European Parliament Nathalie Brack (Université libre de Bruxelles) and Olivier Costa (Science Po Bordeaux)
  • Legislative member organisations in new legislatures: relationships and information exchange in the European and Scottish parliaments Christopher Carman (University of Strathclyde) and Nils Ringe (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
  • Parliamentary majorities in Great Britain and Italy (1985-2006): different yet similar? Maria Luisa Esposito (University of Siena)
  • Comparing the power of committees: the theory and practice of Westminster and Holyrood Mark Shephard (University of Strathclyde)
  • The supremacy of Parliament vs the supremacy of the Constitution: experiences from the Commonwealth Caribbean Hamid Ghany (University of the West Indies)
  • The State Control Committee in the Israeli Parliament: form of accountability under stress Chen Friedberg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
  • More than ‘law-makers’: the European Parliament and institutional integration of new members Milena Bigatto (University of Siena)
  • The Independent Parliamentary Standards Agency Oonagh Gay (Constitution Unit, University College London)
  • The election of a Speaker in the legislatures of the United Kingdom Richard Kelly (House of Commons Library, UK)
  • Does Parliamentary Development Assistance Matter? An Examination of the Aid Effectiveness in Parliamentary Approaches to Corruption A.H. Monjurul Kabir (Democratic Governance Group, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP New York)
  • Legislative oversight: from capacity to activity Riccardo Pelizzo (Griffith University) and Rick Stapenhurst (The World Bank)

Next Workshop

The tenth worksop will be held at Wroxton College on 28-29 July 2012. For more details, please select the correct option on the Contact page.