Parliaments play a pivotal role in governance, and yet little is known about how evidence is used for decision-making in these complex, political environments. Together with its practice companion volume, African Parliaments: Systems of evidence in practice, this volume explores the multiple roles legislatures play in governance, the varied mandates and allegiances of elected representatives, and what this means for evidence use. Given the tensions in Africa around the relationships between democracy and development, government and citizen agency, this volume considers the theories around parliamentary evidence use, and interrogates what they mean in the context of African governance.
The role parliaments play in governance is fundamentally political, and as a result, the institutional side of parliamentary organisations is often overlooked. This volume, together with the theoretical volume African Parliaments: Evidence systems for governance and development, takes a practical look at African parliaments as institutions, and explores the ways in which their structures and processes influence the use of evidence for decision making. A comparative approach helps the reader get a practical view of how this governance interplay is enacted within portfolio committees, on chamber floors, and on the campaign trail. This volume looks at various models parliaments have used to institutionalise evidence use, and considers the implications this has for governance.
This book offers in-depth analysis of parliamentary development set in a historical context informed by Africa's post-1990s democratic resurgence. In particular, it illustrates how African parliaments are caught between the twin processes of being part of the machinery of government while exercising the function of holding government accountable.
The Anthropology of Parliaments offers a fresh, comparative approach to analysing parliaments and democratic politics, drawing together rare ethnographic work by anthropologists and politics scholars from around the world. Crewe’s insights deepen our understanding of the complexity of political institutions. She reveals how elected politicians navigate relationships by forging alliances and thwarting opponents; how parliamentary buildings are constructed as sites of work, debate and the nation in miniature; and how politicians and officials engage with hierarchies, continuity and change. This book also proposes how to study parliaments through an anthropological lens while in conversation with other disciplines. The dive into ethnographies from across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Region demolishes hackneyed geo-political categories and culminates in a new comparative theory about the contradictions in everyday political work. This important book will be of interest to anyone studying parliaments but especially those in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology; politics, legal and development studies; and international relations.
Excerpt from Journal of the Parliaments of the Empire, 1920, Vol. 1 In presenting the first number of the Journal to the members of the Empire Parliamentary Association in the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and the Dominions, a few words of explanation as to its scope and objects are necessary, more especially by reason of the fact that the membership of most of the Parliaments of the Empire has undergone some change since the decision was first arrived at to issue a quarterly Journal on the lines of the present publication. When the Association was formed at the Coronation of His Majesty, with branches under the Presidency of the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland, it was intended to use the machinery of the Association not only to provide for increased intercourse, individually and collectively, between Members of Parliament of the Empire, but also to make provision for a satisfactory system of exchange of information between the Parliaments of the British Commonwealth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
A study of legislative development in Africa which explores why variations in the extent of legislative authority and performance across the continent are only partially related, if at all, to the overall level of democratization. Constraints that have retarded the development and power of legislatures across Africa, and how members of some legislatures are breaking free of those constraints, are analyzed. The impact of the legislative branch on the political process in six emerging African democracies is reviewed.
