Back From Westminster British Members Of Parliament And Their Constituents

The British House of Commons has entered a period of substantial change, moving from a state of party cohesion and party leadership toward a more individualistic and active policy-making role. In the dynamic look at the British Parliament and its members, Philip Norton and David M. Wood highlight that change to more intensive constituency response and service on the part of individual members. Like members of the U.S. Congress, British Members of Parliament (MPs) are elected to represent geographical districts. The relationship between the MP and the constituency in Britain has become more important in recent years, but the major changes that have occurred in the relationship since the late 1960s have not been matched by extensive scholarly study. Some pathbreaking work has been done on the subject, but it remains overshadowed by the wealth of material focusing on MPs' activities within the legislative chambers at Westminster. This volume seeks to fill the gap by sketching and assessing the electoral significance of the MPs' constituency work and the broader political ramifications for the workings of the British Parliament. Its findings allow the MP to be seen in full. Norton and Wood argue that the constituency role has gained in importance in recent decades as MPs have become more career-oriented than their forerunners in mid-century. But a by-product of greater professionalism and careerism has been an expanded job description that may take MPs' time and energies away from playing a more effective role in helping to shape the broader policy alternatives for the United Kingdom.

What sort of people are MPs and what is the job that they do? Are they, in spite of being 'celebrities in their own constituencies, well-known, respected, indeed the voice of government', once again, on their return to Westminster 'only minnows, one of the five hundred-odd backbenchers with no special status or rights other than to be lobby-fodder for their party'? Are they workaholics 'preoccupied with endless meetings, ceaseless letters, interminable constituency problems...on a treadmill of late nights and early mornings'? Or is this frenetic activity more often than not self-induced and unnecessary? What does the future hold for the backbench job into the twenty-first century? These and other crucial questions are examined in this new and completely revised edition of the successful and revealing analysis of the job of the backbencher.

From Policy Advocates to Whips to Ministers, the many roles within the British Parliament are shaped not only by institutional rules but also by the individuals who fill them, yet few observers have fully appreciated this vital aspect of governing in one of the world's oldest representative systems. Applying a new motivational role theory to materials from extensive first-hand interviews conducted during the eventful 1970s, Donald Searing deepens our understanding of how Members of Parliament understand their goals, their careers, and their impact on domestic and global issues. He explores how Westminster's world both controls and is created by individuals, illuminating the interplay of institutional constraints and individual choice in shaping roles within the political arena. No other book tells us so much about political life at Westminster. Searing has interviewed 521 Members of Parliament--including Conservative Ministers Margaret Thatcher, Peter Walker, and James Prior; Labour Ministers Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, and Denis Healey; rising stars Michael Heseltine, Norman Tebbitt, David Owen, and Roy Hattersley; habitual outsiders, like Michael Foot, who eventually joined the inner circle; and former insiders, like Enoch Powell, who were shut out. Searing also gives voice to the vast number of Westminster's backbenchers, who play a key part in shaping political roles in Parliament but are less likely to be heard in the media: trade unionists, knights of the shires, owners of small businesses, and others. In this segment of his study, women, senior backbenchers, and newcomers are well represented. Searing adroitly blends quantitative with qualitative analysis and integrates social and economic theories about political behavior. He addresses concerns about power, duty, ambition, and representation, and skillfully joins these concerns with his critical discoveries about the desires, beliefs, and behaviors associated with roles in Parliament. Westminster's World offers political scientists, historians, anthropologists, political commentators, and the public rich new material about the House of Commons as well as a convincing model for understanding the structure and dynamics of political roles.

This first book-length study of the socialisation of MPs uses questionnaire data gathered over two Parliaments (1992-97 and 1997-2001) to find out how MPs learn about, and what their attitudes are towards, their role as a Member of Parliament. It analyzes their participation in debates, the use of Parliamentary Questions and committee work.

Lundberg critically examines the claim that party list-elected members of Britain's devolved assemblies, in Wales and Scotland, are somehow 'second-class' representatives. Although list-elected representatives in Britain have a different constituency role, these representatives add an important element of pluralism to Britain's politics.

"The only text to combine academic and practitioner perspectives with evidence based case studies to reveal what really goes on behind the scenes of Parliament. Draws on the perspectives of academics and parliamentary practitioners, to give students an authentic insight into the workings of Parliament. Provides a series of evidence-based case studies so that students can fully understand the reality of Parliament in practice. Explores the relationships between the different structures, parliamentarians and practitioners within Parliament on both a formal and an informal level, to enable student to understand the essential processes and actors." --

In contrast with most literature on Canadian politics, this book resurrects the relevance of Canada's Parliament by examining what MPs do, why they do it, and what effect it has. Constituency Influence in Parliament examines the rules and conduct of Private Members' Business to assess the complex relationship between constituency representation and policy proposals. This revealing study shows that Members of Parliament pursue various types of goals in the legislature � not all of which focus upon parties or leaders � and each MP plays an important representative role in shaping policy.

Undersøgelse af parlamentsmandatet baseret på svar på IPU-spørgeskema fra 134 parlamenter. Svarene er sammenlignet systematisk med de respektive forfatninger, lovgivning og parlamentsforretningsordener.