Author: Tony BennPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 45
Book Description
The Speaker, the Commons and Democracy
Author: Tony BennHeld in contempt
Author: Hannah WhitePublisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526156687
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98
Book Description
The House of Commons is increasingly held in contempt by the British public. From attending parties during the Covid-19 lockdown to taking payment for lobbying, MPs undermine their credibility by acting as if the rules they set for others should not apply to them. Still far from representative of the country they govern from the ancient and crumbling Palace of Westminster, MPs appear detached from the lives led by their constituents – conducting their business according to rules and procedures that have become too complex for many of them to understand. In this timely book, Hannah White offers a perceptive critique of the shortcomings of the House of Commons, arguing that the reputation of the Commons is in a downward spiral - compounded by government attempts to side-line parliament during Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. At a time of populist challenge to representative democracy, this book is an essential rallying cry for MPs to reform the House of Commons – equipping it to fulfil its important role as a cornerstone of our democracy – or see it fade into irrelevance.
A Treatise Upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament
Author: Thomas Erskine MayHouse of Commons Speaker's Address
Author: Teachers Institute on Canadian Parliamentary DemocracyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
The Office of Speaker in the Parliaments of the Commonwealth
Author: Philip LaundyPublisher: London : Quiller
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308
Book Description
Philip Laundy, Clerk Assitant of the Canadian Houe of Commons, has written a book on the Speakership in the Parliaments of the Commonwealth which is not far short of encyclopaedic in its scope. He is the author of an earlier work entitled The Office Speaker and joint author of An Encyclopaedia of Parliament and has thus devoted many years to the study of Parliament and its institutions. The present book, while drawing on some of the material contained in its predecessor, is substantially a new work which breaks a great deal of fresh ground. It deals with the Speakership in some forty Commonwealth countries and its a tribute to parliamentary democracy and the influence of British parliamentary practices. At the same time it highlights how very differently the system of some countries have evolved from the traditions associated with Great Britain. In Canada the widely supported movement towards the political independence of the Speakership has yet to become an established practice. In India there exists a similar consciousness of the desirability of an independent Speakership but practical obstacles have remained in the way of its attainment. In Australia the office is heavily dependent on the party in power and this seems unlikely to change. In New Zealand, although the Parliament adheres closely to Westminster practices, the Speaker is nevertheless likely to change with a change of government. There are countries elsewhere in the Commonwealth where the Speaker is not necessarily an elected member of Parliament. In most African Parliaments the Speakership is inseparable from the ruling party and loyalty to the party, particularly in one-party states, is a sine qua non. But throughout the book the author stresses the similarities which link the office Speaker in the far-flung countries of the Commonwealth to its British counterpart. The history of the Speakership from its earliest origins is compressed into a single chapter and a second chapter is devoted to an analysis of the British Speakership in the twentieth century. He has considered the nature and duties of the modern Speakership, the prestige and continuity of the office, problems surrounding the selection of the candidate, the Speaker's responsibilities relating to procedure, privilege, and the maintenance of discipline, and his statutory duties. Parliamentarians, historians and students of government throughout the Commonwealth will find this book a mine of information concerning the Speakership and a comparative source of reference which is as complete, accurate and up-to-date as the author has been able to make. Enlivened with a wealth of anecdotes, it is a highly readable account of a great historic office.
Thinking like a Mall
Author: Steven VogelPublisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262529718
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
A provocative argument that environmental thinking would be better off if it dropped the concept of “nature” altogether and spoke instead of the built environment. Environmentalism, in theory and practice, is concerned with protecting nature. But if we have now reached “the end of nature,” as Bill McKibben and other environmental thinkers have declared, what is there left to protect? In Thinking like a Mall, Steven Vogel argues that environmental thinking would be better off if it dropped the concept of “nature” altogether and spoke instead of the “environment”—that is, the world that actually surrounds us, which is always a built world, the only one that we inhabit. We need to think not so much like a mountain (as Aldo Leopold urged) as like a mall. Shopping malls, too, are part of the environment and deserve as much serious consideration from environmental thinkers as do mountains. Vogel argues provocatively that environmental philosophy, in its ethics, should no longer draw a distinction between the natural and the artificial and, in its politics, should abandon the idea that something beyond human practices (such as “nature”) can serve as a standard determining what those practices ought to be. The appeal to nature distinct from the built environment, he contends, may be not merely unhelpful to environmental thinking but in itself harmful to that thinking. The question for environmental philosophy is not “how can we save nature?” but rather “what environment should we inhabit, and what practices should we engage in to help build it?”
Parliament and Democracy in the Twenty-first Century
Author: David BeethamPublisher: Inter-Parliamentary Union
ISBN: 9291423661
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Book Description
The UK's Changing Democracy
Author: Patrick DunleavyPublisher: LSE Press
ISBN: 1909890464
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 521
Book Description
The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations. The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy. The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition. Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefinitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media. In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth. Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.
Governing the Commons
Author: Elinor OstromPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107569788
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Tackles one of the most enduring and contentious issues of positive political economy: common pool resource management.
The parliamentary oath
Author: Edwin Joseph Lisle March Phillipps DE LISLEPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Loyalty oaths
Languages : en
Pages : 108
Book Description