Conscience Voting in the Australian Federal Parliament*

This article examines the merits of conscience voting and the historical record of parties imposing discipline when matters of individual conscience are raised in the Australian federal parliament. It examines three examples of conscience voting in which legislators were freed from their normal obligation to vote as their party requires. These involved bills to do with euthanasia, research involving embryonic stem cells, and the abortion drug RU486 — all issues posing parliamentarians with difficult questions of personal morality and highlighting the contentious intersection between religion and politics. Voting records on these bills are examined in detail as is the interaction, once party discipline was removed, between the voting decision and residual party loyalty, gender and religious affiliation. Although parties allowed legislators to vote according to their conscience, party differences remained apparent. However, gender and religious variables did challenge majority party opinion. Conscience voting remains the exception rather than the rule in the Australian parliament. Party leaders on both sides prefer predictable outcomes and to retain executive control of the legislative process.     

A Tale of Two Councils. Explaining the Weakness of the SVP in the Upper House of the Federal Parliament

The SVP is the strongest party in the National Council, but the weakest among governmental parties in the Council of States. This article analyses possible explanations for this surprising difference by combining macro‐level information on electoral results and data from recent election studies. The results presented show that the weakness of the SVP in the Council of States is due neither to its decision to compete only in selected constituencies, nor to “mechanical” effects of the electoral system. Rather, this weakness is explained both by the strategic behaviour of voters, who avoid “wasting” their vote in the majoritarian election of the Council of States, and by incumbency effects. The SVP is further disadvantaged by its ideological position, as its candidates have more difficulty gathering the majority of votes required for election in the Council of States than do, for instance, those of the centre‐right parties.     

Against Global Parliament

Experimentation is often thought to be a key quality of any legitimate democratic system. Employing global parliamentary proposals as a heuristic, this article suggests that top‐down models for global democratization – proffered by liberal cosmopolitans and world government scholars – may create path‐dependencies which foreclose options for experimenting with alternative institutional designs in the future. Drawing upon historical institutionalism, the structure, sequence, and setting of top‐down proposals are outlined to show how experimentation with other forms of democracy may be constrained in problematic ways. Following this assessment, the article suggests that striving for democratic values under a pluralist arrangement of global governance may facilitate incremental institutional development and promote experimentation over time.     

The German Parliament

ABSTRACT

In the words of Louis Marie de La Haye Cormenin (1788-1864), the French lawyer, politician and pamphleteer, in the Livre des orateurs (1843), ‘Four people know the secret of the weakness of the parliamentary orator: his doctor, his confessor, his lover and his stenographer’. Stenographers worked for the first time in 1840 in the Upper House of the Hungarian Parliament. The Bureau of Stenographers as a permanent office was established in 1868. For the Upper House and the House of Representatives, a joint Bureau of Stenographers was organized with two superiors, four auditors, twelve ordinary stenographers and two rotation guides. The stenographers worked at five-minute intervals with no backlog of work. The stenographic report of each session was published half an hour later after the last word had been spoken in the session room. The parliamentary stenographer was required to have a university degree and to take a shorthand exam. Journalists, lawyers, professors and also engineers were employed as stenographers. Reproductive intelligence, quick comprehension, responsiveness, and craftsmanship were some of the qualities that were required to be a qualified parliamentary stenographer.     

Nigeria's foreign policy and transnational security challenges in West Africa

This article explores how Nigeria's foreign policy has responded to transnational security challenges in West Africa. It engages in a conceptual overview of the discourse on transnational security and links this with a discussion of Nigeria's foreign policy towards West Africa. Of note is Nigeria's pursuit of a leadership role in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in its quest for security, economic integration and development. Several questions are posed: What do Nigerian policymakers consider to be the most significant transnational threats in West Africa? How and through what legitimate policies and instruments do they respond to such threats? How important is ECOWAS to Nigeria's attempt to respond to transnational threats? And how effective have Nigeria's attempts to influence the ECOWAS agenda in this regard been? Although ECOWAS has remained central to Nigeria's responses to transnational security threats in the subregion, the country has not been able to match its rhetoric on addressing transnational security threats with far-reaching concrete achievements. It is suggested that social transformation of Nigeria's current foreign policy (that is, to one focused and committed to putting people at its centre) and a change in the policies of dominant global powers towards West Africa would enhance human emancipation and eliminate the numerous insecurities confronting the peoples of the subregion.     

Marongiu and the Parliament of Sardinia1

I Parlamenti di Sardegna nella storia e nel diritto pubblico comparato (Sardinian Parliaments in History and in Comparative Public Law) was the first important scientific work written by Antonio Marongiu (1902–89) and was published in 1931 in the series of the studies of the Institute of Public Law and Social Legislation of the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ (Istituto di Diritto Pubblico e Legislazione Sociale della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche dell'Università ‘La Sapienza’ di Roma). The facsimile reprint of the text was promoted in 2009 by Marongiu's family as a tribute to the memory of its great ancestor on the twentieth anniversary of his death. Maria Sofia Corciulo's article reproduces the preface to this reprint and is prefaced by a short note about Marongiu and his work.     

Conflict-Management in Russia's Federal Institutions

A political scientist examines factors leading to instability in the Russian legislative and executive branches. The article focuses on the design of Russia's “unlinked dual-channel” institutions-particularly, partisan factions and legislative committees in the Duma, and the presidential administration and government apparatus in the executive branch. Media sources and the author's personal interviews with Duma, Kremlin, and ministry officials are analyzed.     

Parliament and public opinion in Max Weber's analysis

Public opinion was converted into a mass phenomenon concerning an extended public, through the process of democratization that occurred at the end of the nineteenth century. This transformation aroused the interest of social and political scientists: Ferdinand Tönnies, Hermann Oncken, and James Bryce, who highlighted relevant aspects relating to public opinion, the process of its formation, and its social and political meaning. By taking inspiration from these studies, Max Weber stressed the role played by the press in shaping public opinion. He also recognized that public opinion constituted an influential factor in political life, which nevertheless needed politico-institutional mediation reducing its emotional components. From this perspective, Parliament was the most appropriate institution to provide this mediation, since it provided a work of synthesis and elaboration of the different issues circulating in the public sphere. Additionally, the activity of Parliament could also contribute in a relevant way to forming an educated public capable of judging in a reflective and responsible manner, by demonstrating its expertise and efficiency through substantial work and factual decision-making.     

The development of the role of the European Parliament

SUMMARY

In this article, Sandro Guerrieri argues the case for studying the emergence of the European Parliament from the historical perspective, now made more feasible by the growing availability of the European Union's own archives at Florence. He suggests that, so far, most analysis of the development of the Parliament has been undertaken by lawyers and political scientists. A historical approach is particularly important, because the European Union does not exactly fit the normal institutional classifications, it is not an interstate association, nor a developed federal state, but combines elements of both. It follows that the European Parliament has developed in ways which partly replicate the development of parliaments in national sovereign or federal states, but is also adapted to the unique political structures of the European Union. The article then traces the path of development from the original Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community, made up of members nominated by the national parliaments to act as a monitor of the work of the High Authority. From its inception, this Assembly began to press for the organization and authority of a parliament. From then on the Assembly and its successor institutions, which in 1962 finally secured the official title of the European Parliament, has steadily enlarged its powers. The article suggests that while the Parliament can be expected to develop many features that have characterized Europe's national parliaments, it will diverge from them because historically it is a pioneering experiment in supranational parliamentarianism.     

欧洲议会中的主要竞争层面

欧洲议会政治与传统的国家议会政治有很大的不同,相对于成员国国内政治来说,欧洲议会中的政治内容更加复杂,竞争层面更加多样。理解欧洲议会中的竞争层面是理解欧盟政治的一个重要步骤。本文第一部分大致勾勒了这一议题现有的研究成果;第二部分详细阐述了政治科学领域中学者的观点,即"左-右分野"是欧洲议会中的主要竞争层面,而"支持一体化—反对一体化"竞争层面也存在于欧洲议会之中,且与第一个竞争层面相关联;第三部分选取"港口服务指令"立法的失败作为案例进一步证明"左-右分野"是欧洲议会中的主要竞争层面。     

Press Photography and Visual Censorship in the Australian Parliament

Still photography is an important medium for visually communicating — and scrutinising — the power of elected representatives. However, it has been severely restricted by parliaments. Surprisingly, the photographs taken by press photographers have been viewed as a larger threat to parliamentary dignity than other seemingly more powerful media, such as television. This article analyses parliaments’ “extraordinary sensitivity to photography” 1 by conducting a comparative, historical examination of press photography in five national parliaments — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The article discusses historical milestones in media access for each of these parliaments, but focuses particularly upon the unusual case of the Australian Parliament and its rules on still photography. The author draws upon interviews conducted with Australian press photographers, as well as an analysis of primary material — including parliamentary guidelines on media access, photographs, newspaper reports, parliamentary debates, inquiry reports and submissions.     

Making Democracy Work in a Federal System

Elections shape the type of democracy. However, rules of elections, election behaviour, and consequences of elections are also affected by the institutions and patterns of democracy. In federal systems, elected governments exert divided powers or share powers, with significant consequences for the way democracy works. The effects of federal organisation on democracy are, however, unclear. Whereas research on federalism tends to suggest that both forms are complementary and mutually supportive, research on democracy points out negative implications of multilevel structures and interlocking politics. This article presents an analytical perspective and attempts to clarify under what conditions federalism and democracy are compatible or in conflict. Understanding these relations is essential to assess the relevance and effects of elections in federalism. In a comparative perspective, it also sheds light on the particular features of democracy and federalism in Germany.     

Abbott's Gambit: 2013 Australian Federal Election

Abbott's Gambit: 2013 Australian Federal Election . Edited by Carol Johnson and John Wanna (with Hsu‐Ann Lee) (Canberra: Australian National University Press 2015), pp.436, AU$35.00 (pb).     

Rebels and rebellions: Conservative MPs in the 1992 Parliament

During the 1992 Parliament the Conservative Party lost its reputation for unity. The parliamentary party, said by some to be unusually rebellious, got the blame. This article places the levels of dissent in the division lobbies of the House of Commons in historical perspective, comparing the 1992 Parliament with those before. Contrary to received wisdom, Conservative MPs were not noticeably more rebellious after 1992. The article also considers the ideological and factional basis of the rebellions. Because the rebellions in Parliament focused almost exclusively on Europe, the party remained one of tendencies, albeit well-organised and cohesive tendencies, rather than factions; and the extent to which the rebellions cut across existing ideological cleavages has been overstated.