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The Centralisation of Parliamentary Policy Statements in Western European Parliaments.

Authors :
Keh, Julia Frederike
Source :
West European Politics. Sep2015, Vol. 38 Issue 5, p1086-1105. 20p.
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

Parliamentarians and their party groups can employ many different instruments to communicate policy statements to their electorate (debates in plenary, presentations of committee reports, oral questions, written questions, and interpellations). Therefore, the design of these instruments should be analysed in one common framework. This paper seeks to provide a first step towards this goal by mapping and explaining the centralisation of parliamentary policy statements in all western European countries with a parliamentary system. It is argued that, on a theoretical level, there are two different causes for a stronger or weaker centralisation of the instruments of parliamentary policy statements: the electoral connection and efficiency. Empirically, it is shown that there are striking differences in centralisation both within and between countries which are worth exploring further. Moreover, the results of the statistical models suggest that the electoral connection is the driving factor behind the centralisation of the instruments of parliamentary policy statements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
01402382
Volume :
38
Issue :
5
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
West European Politics
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
103576532
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2015.1045318