Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees

Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees PDF Author: Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192663720
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
In recent decades, we have seen an explosion in expectations for greater accountability of public policymaking. But, as accountability has increased, trust in governments and politicians has fallen. By focusing on the heart of public accountability—the reason-giving by policymakers for their policy decisions (i.e. deliberative accountability)—this work offers an empirical route for understanding why more accountability may not always deliver more public trust. The focus is on the British Parliament, where both the Treasury Select Committee and the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee hold hearings on monetary policy, financial stability, and fiscal policy. The intent in these hearings is to challenge policymakers to explain their decisions, and thus the dialogue is expected to be deliberative. But how do we judge the quality of this deliberative accountability? Three metrics are explored and measured: respect, non-partisanship, and reciprocity. The approach is multi-method, including (1) quantitative text analysis to gauge the verbatim transcripts in committee hearings; (2) qualitative coding combined with an experimental design to gauge the role of nonverbal communication in the hearings; and (3) interviews with the MPs, peers, central bankers, and Treasury officials who participated in the hearings. The first method measures the content of 'what' was said, the second examines 'how' the words and arguments were expressed, and the third provides a more reflective 'why' component by asking participants to explain their motivations. This merging of the 'what', the 'how', and the 'why' offers a novel template for studying both accountability and deliberation.

Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees

Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees PDF Author: Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192663720
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book

Book Description
In recent decades, we have seen an explosion in expectations for greater accountability of public policymaking. But, as accountability has increased, trust in governments and politicians has fallen. By focusing on the heart of public accountability—the reason-giving by policymakers for their policy decisions (i.e. deliberative accountability)—this work offers an empirical route for understanding why more accountability may not always deliver more public trust. The focus is on the British Parliament, where both the Treasury Select Committee and the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee hold hearings on monetary policy, financial stability, and fiscal policy. The intent in these hearings is to challenge policymakers to explain their decisions, and thus the dialogue is expected to be deliberative. But how do we judge the quality of this deliberative accountability? Three metrics are explored and measured: respect, non-partisanship, and reciprocity. The approach is multi-method, including (1) quantitative text analysis to gauge the verbatim transcripts in committee hearings; (2) qualitative coding combined with an experimental design to gauge the role of nonverbal communication in the hearings; and (3) interviews with the MPs, peers, central bankers, and Treasury officials who participated in the hearings. The first method measures the content of 'what' was said, the second examines 'how' the words and arguments were expressed, and the third provides a more reflective 'why' component by asking participants to explain their motivations. This merging of the 'what', the 'how', and the 'why' offers a novel template for studying both accountability and deliberation.

Parliamentary Committees

Parliamentary Committees PDF Author:
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1859415326
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
In twenty years, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association has organized six study groups of members of Commonwealth Parliaments to discuss various topics of interest and importance and, in most cases, reports or books have been the outcome of these meetings. Following on from the 1995 CPA conference on Parliament and People - making democratic institutions more representative, responsible and relevant, the executive Committee of the CPA decided to establish another study group on the functioning of committees in Commonwealth Parliaments with a view to recommending ways in which committee systems can enhance the performance and public perception of Parliament and Parliamentarians. This volume is a compilation of the findings and recommendations of this study and is intended as a resource for students of Parliament, as well as practitioners of the art of politics throughout the Commonwealth.

Deliberative Mini-Publics

Deliberative Mini-Publics PDF Author: Maija Setälä
Publisher: ECPR Press
ISBN: 1907301321
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The first comprehensive account of the booming phenomenon of deliberative mini-publics, this book offers a systematic review of their variety, discusses their weaknesses, and recommends ways to make them a viable component of democracy. The book takes stock of the diverse practices of deliberative mini-publics and, more concretely, looks at preconditions, processes, and outcomes. It provides a critical assessment of the experience with mini-publics; in particular their lack of policy impact. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, notably James S Fishkin and Mark E Warren, Deliberative Mini-Publics will speak to anyone with an interest in democracy and democratic innovations.

Party Personnel Strategies

Party Personnel Strategies PDF Author: Matthew Soberg Shugart
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192897055
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Key party goals serve to advance a policy brand and maximize seats in the legislature. This book offers a theory of how political parties assign their elected members -- their personnel -- to specialized legislative committees to serve collective organizational goals, here known as party personnel strategies. Individual party members vary in their personal attributes, such as prior occupation, gender, and local experience. Parties seek to harness the attributes of their members by assigning them to committees where their expertise is relevant, and where they may enhance the party's policy brand. However, under some electoral systems, parties may need to trade-off the harnessing of expertise against the pursuit of seats, instead matching legislators according to electoral situation (e.g. marginality of seat) or characteristics of their constituency (e.g. population density). This book offers an analysis of the extent to which parties trade these goals by matching the attributes of their personnel and their electoral needs to the functions of the available committee seats. The analysis is based on a dataset of around six thousand legislators across thirty-eight elections in six established parliamentary democracies with diverse electoral systems.

Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions Catching the Deliberative Wave

Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions Catching the Deliberative Wave PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264725903
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
Public authorities from all levels of government increasingly turn to Citizens' Assemblies, Juries, Panels and other representative deliberative processes to tackle complex policy problems ranging from climate change to infrastructure investment decisions. They convene groups of people representing a wide cross-section of society for at least one full day – and often much longer – to learn, deliberate, and develop collective recommendations that consider the complexities and compromises required for solving multifaceted public issues.

Deliberative Systems

Deliberative Systems PDF Author: John Parkinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107025397
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
A major new statement of deliberative theory that shows how states, even transnational systems, can be deliberatively democratic.

Deliberating American Monetary Policy

Deliberating American Monetary Policy PDF Author: Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262019574
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 537

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Book Description
A systematic analysis of Federal Reserve and congressional deliberations on monetary policy, drawing on textual analysis software and in-depth interviews with participants. American monetary policy is formulated by the Federal Reserve and overseen by Congress. Both policy making and oversight are deliberative processes, although the effect of this deliberation has been difficult to quantify. In this book, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey provides a systematic examination of deliberation on monetary policy from 1976 to 2008 by the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee (FOMC) and House and Senate banking committees. Her innovative account employs automated textual analysis software to study the verbatim transcripts of FOMC meetings and congressional hearings; these empirical data are supplemented and supported by in-depth interviews with participants in these deliberations. The automated textual analysis measures the characteristic words, phrases, and arguments of committee members; the interviews offer a way to gauge the extent to which the empirical findings accord with the participants' personal experiences. Analyzing why and under what conditions deliberation matters for monetary policy, the author identifies several strategies of persuasion used by FOMC members, including Paul Volcker's emphasis on policy credibility and efforts to influence economic expectations. Members of Congress, however, constrained by political considerations, show a relative passivity on the details of monetary policy.

Global Parliamentary Report

Global Parliamentary Report PDF Author: Greg Power
Publisher: Inter-Parliamentary Union
ISBN: 929142532X
Category : Legislative bodies
Languages : en
Pages : 123

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Book Description


The Parliamentary Mandate

The Parliamentary Mandate PDF Author: Marc van der Hulst
Publisher: Inter-Parliamentary Union
ISBN: 9291420565
Category : Legislators
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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

Deliberative Democracy in Australia

Deliberative Democracy in Australia PDF Author: John Uhr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521624657
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Parliament is central to the democratic claims of our system of governance. This book evaluates the role and performance of this centrepiece of Australian government. It explores the institutional design of the parliament, and its principles and practices, presenting a compelling case for reform. Uhr discusses parliament's representative and legislative roles, and the issue of accountability. He looks at the place of representative assemblies in liberal political theory and assesses current institutional performance. He argues that republicanism can be seen as a form of deliberative democracy, examining ways in which such democracy might be made more effective and meaningful in Australia. Combining an authoritative knowledge of political theory with a familiarity with the inner-workings of the Australian parliament, the author makes an important contribution to debates in Australia and internationally.