RC08 - Legislative Specialists

To content | To menu | To search

24Sep 2018

Call for proposals: An edited volume “Decline in Legislatures and Rise of Populism” (Irina Khmelko and Frederick Stapenhurst, editors)

Recently, political scientists observed that legislatures are ceding power to increasingly assertive executive bodies that work to supplant legislative processes with executive processes. This volume will discuss various factors that diminish the power of legislatures. We are interested in case studies from all regions of the world, and we are specifically interested in countries that have experienced significant power shifts in recent years, e.g. Italy and some countries in South America.

If you have interest in this kind of research, please email a title of a proposed chapter and a brief abstract to Dr. Irina Khmelko at Irina-Khmelko@utc.edu by September 22, 2018.

17Aug 2018

Call for Papers: The Fourteenth Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians

We are delighted to announce the Fourteenth Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians, which is to be held on Saturday 27 July and Sunday 28 July 2019.  The venue is the same as for earlier Workshops: Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, UK, an ideal venue for international gatherings. See here for the Call for Papers.

25Jul 2018

RCLS at 25th World Congress of Political Science in Brisbane, Australia

RC08/RCLS organized a session with 7 panels including 36 papers at the 25th World Congress of Political Science in Brisbane, Australia, July 21-25, 2018

RC08 Session Chairs: Zdenka Mansfeldova and Hilmar Rommetvedt.

  • Internet and Representative Democracy, chair Da-Chi Liao, discussants Cheng-Shan (Frank) Liu and Alexander Tan.
  • Executive-legislative Relations, chair Hilmar Rommetvedt, discussant Timothy Power.
  • Governing, Representation and Democracy, co-chairs John Erik Fossum and Russell Solomon, discussant Hans-Joerg Trenz.
  • Legislative Agenda Setting, Policy-making and Oversight, chair Julia Schwanholz, discussants Peter Lilienfeld and Michael Edinger.
  • Roundtable - Authors Meet Critics: A Roundtable Discussion on "Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective", co-chairs Svitlana Chernykh and Timothy Power, discussant Benjamin Reilly.
  • The New Roles of Parliamentary Committees Revisited, chair Ken Coghill, discussant Zdenka Mansfeldova.
  • Voluntary and Involuntary Exits from Parliaments: Post-parliamentary Careers of MPs, co-chairs Michael Edinger and Marija Taflaga, discussant Sven T. Siefken.

13Jul 2017

CfP: Voluntary and Involuntary Exits from Parliaments: Post-parliamentary Careers of MPs

Panel Proposal for the 25th World Congress of Political Science for RCLS / RC 08 Legislative Specialists (21-26 July 2018, Brisbane)

Convenor: Michael Edinger
Chair: Michael Edinger, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Co-Chair: Marija Taflaga, Australian National University Canberra
Discussant: Csaba Nikolényi, Concordia University Montreal

Parliamentary recruitment is a well-established sub-discipline of parliamentary research, and candidate selection has recently been attracting more attention from scholars. However, hardly any research has been conducted on the exits from parliament or on the careers of former Members of Parliament. This is surprising because such research promises to substantially enhance our knowledge of the career strategies of politicians, the relevance of membership and positions in parliament for political careers, and the commitment to parties when party discipline is no longer imminent.

The proposed panel will address research on MPs and their careers beyond their term in parliament. It will examine all aspects of parliamentary exit – voluntarily or imposed, during or at the end of a term, caused by electorates or selectorates – just as the variety of career paths following the departure from the legislative assembly.

Empirical research on the circumstances of departure from parliament should provide a much better understanding of career trajectories and patterns. The papers may also investigate former MPs and their post-parliamentary activities in order to learn about the permeability of the political sector, the cohesion of political parties, or their capacity of patronage. The panel should further provide new insights into the function of parliaments for political careers ranging from episodic membership (waiting room) to a final career destination, and from serving as a retirement home to a springboard to higher offices.

Conceptual approaches may include perspectives from representation or delegation theory, elite studies, and research on political careers, among others. Contributions are invited from both junior and senior scholars and may involve a qualitative, quantitative or a mixed-methods design. Paper proposals by scholars from the Global South are particularly welcome as are comparative papers.

Please send your paper proposal to Michael Edinger by 15 August 2017.

Dr. Michael Edinger
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
michael.edinger[at]uni-jena.de

13Jul 2017

CfP: The Decline of National Parliaments?

Panel Proposal for the 25th World Congress of Political Science for RCLS / RC 08 Legislative Specialists (21-26 July 2018, Brisbane)

Convenor & Chair: Zdenka Mansfeldová, Czech Academy of Sciences; Discussant: Petra Guasti, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt

The processes of globalization and Europeanization fundamentally influence the role and functioning of national parliaments. Electoral and political participation continue to wane, negatively affecting input legitimacy, the ability of the national parliaments legislate is limited by supranational rules, their input into supranational (i.e. for Europe EU) legislation procedurally constrained. In the wake of growing populism and calls for direct democracy, we ask – are we seeing the inevitable decline of representative democracy and its institutions (parliaments)? Parliaments adopt various strategies to address these issues - increasing transparency, procedural and output legitimacy. One example is the direct interaction between parliaments and organized interests during the legislative process. This panel focuses on the interaction between the parliament and organized interest groups, posing the question whether strengthening these forms of interactions has the potential to strengthen the legitimacy of national parliaments by bridging the gap between citizens and institutions of representative democracy.

This panel welcomes comparative papers that contribute to the broader comparative research on the interaction between national parliaments and organized interests (civil society, trade unions, and lobby groups). We particularly welcome comparisons between CEE and other transition countries around the world, but theoretically driven papers with single case studies are also welcome.

Please send your paper proposal to Zdenka Mansfeldová (zdenka.mansfeldova[at]soc.cas.cz) by 15 August 2017.

27Mar 2017

IPSA World Congress 2018: Call for panels and papers

RC08 Legislative Specialists (RCLS) will organize a number of panels at the 25th IPSA World Congress of Political Science, July 21-26, 2018 in Brisbane, Australia.

The IPSA call for panels and papers will open May 10. Deadline: October 10, 2017. Make sure the proposals are submitted to the RC08 session.

Panel proposals should include a chair, discussant(s) and 4-6 papers, just like the “closed panels” before. The former “open panels” have been dropped this time. RC08 will assess individual paper proposals and form panels within the RC08 session.

See https://wc2018.ipsa.org/ or contact RC08 Program Chair Hilmar.Rommetvedt@iris.no for further information.

06Dec 2016

4th Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments, 29 June – 1st July 2017 in Basel

On the heels of the successful conference in Munich, the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments (SGoP) invites you to submit your proposals for the conference next year. The fourth conference of the SGoP is being hosted by Stefanie Bailer and Tamaki Ohmura at the University of Basel.

The conference will bring together senior and junior scholars of the field. Away from the hectic bustle of large-scale conferences it will offer unique opportunities for detailed discussions and networking. The academic programme will be completed by a social programme including a welcome reception allowing us ample time to catch up with old friends and to meet new members as well as a reception and a conference dinner on the second evening of the conference.

We invite papers that deal with the empirical study of parliaments and legislatures. As it proved successful in Dublin, Vienna, and Munich, the exact thematic and regional range of papers is deliberately broad.

We are inviting proposals:

  • either for individual papers
  • or for entire panels consisting of three to four papers

Abstracts of proposed individual papers should be between 200 and 300 words. Proposals for panels should name a panel chair, discussant, the names of all proposed participants and abstracts for their individual papers.

Proposals should be sent to parliaments.2017@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions: 6 January 2017

Proposals will be evaluated by 27 January 2017

07Oct 2016

CfP: The Thirteenth Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians

We are delighted to announce the Thirteenth Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians, which is to be held on Saturday 29 July and Sunday 30 July 2017. The venue
is the same as for earlier Workshops: Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, UK, an ideal venue for international gatherings. - Paper proposals are invited for the 2017 Workshop: See here for the Call for Papers.

07Oct 2016

CfP: Qualifying and Quantifying Parliamentary Activity: Data, Methods and Practices

Parliamentary activity is far from being a neglected topic in political science: on the contrary, enough research exists to allow for the confrontation of concurrent hypotheses on the nature, the
functioning and the logics of what parliamentarians do. However, our review of that research reveals that it falls short of fully taking into account the qualification and quantification of newer legislative data sources, made available to researchers through digital technology and its implementation by parliamentary services. 

François Briatte and Olivier Rozenberg Biennial publish a Call for Papers on this topic on the Meeting of the French Political Science Association in Montpellier, France, from 10th to 12th July 2017 (Thematic Panel 38). See here for the Call for Papers.

13Jun 2016

RCLS Business Meeting and Elections on the IPSA World Congress in Poznaň (Poland)

​The IPSA World Congress in Poznaň (Poland) is coming and we hope that a large number of RC08 members will participate. There will be a RC08 business meeting on 27 July, 2016, from 19:30 – 20:30 (venue to be announced later). One of the main issues on the agenda this time will be election of a new RC08 Board (formerly Executive Committee). Since the IPSA Congress in Madrid 2012 the Rules has undergone several changes, the latest version binding on us is from May 2016.

Continue reading

24May 2016

Section organized by RCLS at the Dupont Summit

Research Committee of Legislative Specialists (RCLS) of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) invites paper proposals for the RCLS’s panels at the section organized by RCLS at the Dupont Summit) in Washington DC on December 2, 2016.

Continue reading

12Aug 2015

Legislative studies at the IPSA World Congress 2016: Call for papers and closed panels

The Research Committee of Legislative Specialists (RC08 / RCLS) will organize a number of panels at the IPSA World Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, July 23 – 28, 2016.

The deadline for open panel proposals has passed, but here are the key dates for paper and closed panel proposals:

August 7, 2015: Accepted open panels are listed online and the call for papers opens.

October 7, 2015: Deadline to submit paper proposals for open panels. For details see:

http://istanbul2016.ipsa.org/events/congress/istanbul2016/submit-paper

October 7, 2015: Deadline to submit closed panels.

Closed panel = Pre-organized and complete panel that already has an appointed chair, co-chair, discussant(s) and 4-6 papers. The panel convenor (proposer) will be responsible for sending invitations to the authors (presenters) and accepting all paper abstracts submitted to the panel. For details see: http://istanbul2016.ipsa.org/events/congress/istanbul2016/submit-panel

January 18, 2016: Paper proposers are notified of final results.

Please make sure that proposals are submitted to the RC08 session.



 

01Jun 2015

Call for panels at the IPSA World Congress

The Research Committee of Legislative Specialists (RC08 / RCLS) will coordinate a number of panels at the IPSA World Congress. The call for panel submissions is now open. See here for details:

https://istanbul2016.ipsa.org/events/congress/istanbul2016/home

The RC08 session will include panels on all aspects of legislatures and parliamentary government. There are two types of panels: Open panels submitted without papers and open to paper abstract submissions, and Closed panels which are pre-organized and complete panels including 4-6 papers.

Submission deadline for open panels is 8 July 2015.

Please make sure that your panel is submitted for review in the RC08 session.

In case of questions, please contact RC08 / RCLS Program Chair Hilmar Rommetvedt, email:  hilmar.rommetvedt@iris.no


 

27Aug 2014

23rd IPSA World Congress of Political Science, July 19-24, 2014, Montréal, Canada - Business Meeting

The business meeting of RC08-Legislative Specialist was held on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014 in Montréal. Here are the minutes of the meeting.

21Aug 2013

IPSA World Congress, Montreal 2014: Call for papers and closed panels

RCLS / RC08 will organize 9 open panels at the IPSA World Congress in Montreal 2014. Two of the open panels are co-sponsored by RC03 and RC19 respectively (see here). Abstracts/paper proposals for the open panels, and proposals for closed panels (with invited papers from authors that are already organized to present in the panel) may now be submitted via the IPSA website. Panels should have 4-6 papers. The deadline is 7 October 2013.

24Jun 2013

Call for Papers for an RCLS conference with three panels in Perth, Australia, in October 2013 (2nd notice)

Call for Papers: 2nd Notice The IPSA Research Committee of Legislative Specialists (RCLS) invites papers to be presented at a CWC (conference within a conference) Saturday 5th October in association with the Australasian Study of Parliament Group (ASPG) 2013 Conference 2nd to 4th October, in Perth, Western Australia. We encourage papers proposals on topics related to the following three panels:

  • Parliamentary committees (e.g. the changing roles of Parliamentary Committees; Committee roles in the Legislative Process; Effectiveness of Committees)
  • Public participation and communication between lawmakers and citizens (e.g. community participation; media roles; use of social media)
  • Constituency Development Funds

The CWC will be held in the Ibis Hotel (334 Murray Street, Perth)in the Sugar Function Room. There will be a working lunch option for delegates at a cost of AUD23.00 per person which includes a selection of gourmet sandwiches and rolls, fruit platter, sweets selection and soft drink and juices. Please submit proposals to Ken Coghill, Monash University (ken.coghill@monash.edu) and Peverill Squire, University of Missouri (squirep@missouri.edu). A descriptive title will be sufficient. If you will attend the CWC, whether or not you submit a proposal, please also advise Ken Coghill, Monash University (ken.coghill@monash.edu), to assist with planning catering. Please submit your proposal not later than Friday 19th July.

04Jun 2013

GenParlNet - A Cooperation of RC08 and RC19

A new research network, GenParlNet, has been established, linking researchers working on gender-focused parliamentary institutions. At the ECPR Politics and Gender Conference in Barcelona in March there was an unprecedented number of papers on such parliamentary bodies and the opportunity was taken to establish a research network linking researchers in all continents. Three main types of such body have been identified so far: standing committees or commissions operating under standing orders; all-party groups (with a stipulated minimum number of members) approved by presiding officers; cross-party or single party women's caucuses. The Inter-Parliamentary Union began collecting data on such bodies in 2006, although its database is so far strongest on standing committees. Research has been conducted in a range of countries on the mandate of such bodies, their functions, resources, civil-society linkages and perceived effectiveness in terms of enhancing the role of parliaments in gender mainstreaming. GenParlNet is organising at least one panel at the Montreal IPSA Congress 19-24 July 2014 and would welcome suggestions for a collaborative panel linking RC08 and RC19. Please contact Joan Grace or Marian Sawer.

22Apr 2013

Call for proposals: RCLS panels at the IPSA World Congress, Montreal, Canada, 19 - 24 July 2014

The Research Committee of Legislative Specialists will organize a number of panels at the IPSA World Congress. We would like to discuss ideas for panel topics and welcome proposals focusing on any aspect of legislatures and parliamentary government.

Please send a short outline of the panel proposal as soon as possible to RCLS Program Chair Hilmar Rommetvedt, email: hilmar.rommetvedt@iris.no. For information on the World Congress, see here.

24Jan 2013

RCLS panel on Parliamentary Opposition on the ECPR General Conference 2013

We are pleased to announce that at the next General Conference of the ECPR, Bourdeaux, September 4-7 2013 we are oranizing a panel on Parliamentary Opposition in Europe and we invite you to submit an abstract and participate. Please, find the abstract here. THE DEADLINE for abstract submission is February 1st. You can submit your 300 word abstact on this link (after subscribing to MyECPR):

01Sep 2012

RCLS elected new officers in the 2012 Madrid business meeting

RCLS members have met in Madrid where they had several panels. In an extensive business meeting they have elected new officers. Peverill Squire from University of Missouri and Zdenka Mansfeldová from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic are the new Co-Chairs. Hilmar Rommetvedt was elected Program Chair. Werner J. Patzelt from Dresden University of Technology is officially holding the office of past-co-chair. (See here for contact information). In the future, maybe at the IPSA World Congress in Montreal, RCLS can consider ways of bringing closer colleagues from Asia in a similar way like the colleagues in the US.This would help to increase the visibility of RC08. The RC08 is interested in strengthening the linkages to the national political science associations, as more links between RC08 and domestic political scientists leads to higher RCLS exposure. Another issue is the possible attempt to try to find funding possibilities for comparative initiatives in the future. See here for the business minutes. Collage Madrid 2012

- page 2 of 3 -