No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Origins and development of the Parliament of England up to the end of 15th century Abstract This thesis is dedicated to the formation of the English parliament from the enactment of the Magna Carta to the onset of Tudor dynasty reign. It consists of an introduction, conclusion and 13 chapters; chapter 5 has also subchapters. The first chapter describes the origins of parliament's formation and its connection to the Witan and Great Council. The second chapter is dedicated to the period of John's reign, which lead to the rebellion of barons and following that, the enactment of the Magna Carta. Afterwards, it examines provisions of the Magna Carta and its significance for English society and the development of parliament at the time. It also refers to the growing importance of the Magna Carta over the course of following centuries. The third chapter is concerned with the period of Henry's reign when the key importance was the revolt of barons under the leadership of Simon de Montfort. Simon de Montfort in order to secure his position of power summoned a parliament which consisted of, among others, representatives of towns and boroughs as well as knights of shires. Fourth chapter addresses development of parliament during the rule of Edward I which in this regard followed footsteps of Simon de Monfort and...

No description available.

This thesis examines a previously unstudied site of interaction: the constituency office. At the constituency office, Members of Parliament (MPs) hold MP surgeries , during which they help constituents to solve their personal difficulties. This thesis provides the first analysis of interactions at the constituency office. It is the only place where ordinary citizens can meet their MP; as such, it also provides the first analysis of face-to-face, unmediated interactions between politicians and their constituents. For this study, 12.5 hours of interactional data were recorded at the office of an MP in the United Kingdom, comprising over 80 encounters between office staff, the MP, and their constituents. The MP was of the majority ( government ) party at the time of recording. The data were analyzed using conversation analysis (CA), in order to investigate how the social activities of the constituency office were accomplished through interaction. The first analytic chapter reveals the overall structure of constituency office encounters, as well as examining what constituents say when they call or visit the office, and how they express that they are in need of assistance. This chapter finds that constituents avoid making direct requests of their MP, and instead use narrative descriptions. These descriptions manage interactional challenges including the unknown nature of the institution (Stokoe, 2013b), contingency and entitlement (Drew & Curl, 2008), reasonableness and legitimacy (Edwards & Stokoe, 2007; Heritage & Robinson, 2006), and recruitment (Kendrick & Drew, 2016). The second analytic chapter examines the action of offering, and finds it to be the central mechanism for transacting service. The staff use different offer designs to index different nuances in the offering action, such as asking permission or confirming an activity. Both the first and second analytic chapters show that systematic deployment of offers help control the direction of the encounters and tacitly instruct constituents as to what services are available. Furthermore, both of these chapters show the flexibility participants employed in turn design and action ascription, which extends previous descriptions of how requests and offers are constructed (Couper-Kuhlen, 2014; Curl, 2006) and supports recent calls for a more nuanced approach to action description from conversation analysts (Kendrick & Drew, 2014; Sidnell & Enfield, 2014). The third analytic chapter investigates the ostensibly political context of the constituency office, and how the MP and constituents raise political topics in conversation. The chapter finds that the term political is challenging to define in live interactions, and relies on the concept of politicizing (Hay, 2007) statements that upgrade (or downgrade) a topic into greater (or lesser) public and governmental concern. Both the MP and constituents were found to initiate political topics, but in different ways. The MP initiated political topics in explicit references to government, in order to provide evidence that the government was aligned with constituents interests. The constituents initiated political topics in vague and indirect references to recent policy changes, and avoided implicating the MP in any criticisms. The findings suggest that constituents privilege interactional norms (such as not criticizing a co-present interlocutor) over any potential interest in making political critiques. The chapter also discusses what impact these findings may have on concepts such as power and evasion . The final analytic chapter assesses the concept of rapport , finding that it is difficult for both participants and analysts to determine long-term outcomes from local, interactional occurrences in interaction. Rapport is important for MPs who may be attempting to build a personal vote relationship with constituents, but this chapter also finds that constituents have a stake in building rapport in order to receive the best (or any) service. The chapter finds that while traditional practices for building rapport , such as doing small talk or finding common ground, are problematic to employ and assess from an interactional perspective, other local outcomes such as progressivity (Fogarty, Augoustinos & Kettler, 2013) and affiliation (Clark, Drew & Pinch, 2003) may be more useful indicators of positive interactions. This chapter concludes that we need a more nuanced, and interactionally-based, framework to train practitioners (and clients) in effective communication practices. This thesis challenges the conversation analytic literature by finding that the constituency office setting revolves around a more flexible ascription of requests than many studies have previously accepted, and that we can analyze actions as if on a spectrum, rather than in bounded categories. The thesis also contributes to the political discourse literature by finding that constituents activities at the constituency office are strongly influenced by interactional norms, rather than political attitudes. Finally, this thesis provides a basis from which to study the constituency office, as a site of service interaction.

Thesis (MTech (Public Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology. / The primary objective of this study was to contribute evidence and analysis that the administration of Parliament and structures such as portfolio committees can utilise during their oversight activities to ensure the successful implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP). In this regard, this study endeavoured to shed light on the current legislative, oversight and public participation practices of the National Assembly with respect to the executive. In particular, the study considered the strengths and weaknesses of the many ways in which Parliament pursues its mandate, through its oversight methods such as debates, questions, portfolio committee oversight activities, and legislation, amongst others. As such, the study’s recommendations are geared towards strengthening the capabilities of Parliament to deliver improved outcomes and, in so doing, raise the level of accountability within and throughout the institution. A number of gaps and weaknesses in the way in which Parliament executes its mandate were found. Significantly, accountability – which is the axis around which the roles of Members of Parliament and Parliament itself revolves – has been significantly weakened by competing political agendas. The highly political context and the proportional representative system influence the autonomy and commitments of Parliament. The NDP (2012:45) holds that “accountability is essential to democracy and that the accountability chain should be strengthened from top to bottom”. Serious questions emerged about the ability of Parliament to hold the executive to account. Capacity constraints which pertain to both members and staff and the building of coalitions (external expertise) were factors that require attention.

A modernização é um tema recorrente na literatura contemporânea, sobretudo das ciências sociais, e suas expressões trazem elementos de rápida transformação que influenciam toda a sociedade e também suas organizações. O presente estudo está inserido no tema da modernização das organizações, tendo como seu objeto de pesquisa o recorte dos Parlamentos, organizações do Poder Legislativo com características próprias deste Poder. Deste modo, o estudo contribui para o desenvolvimento do campo da administração parlamentar, área de pesquisa pouco desenvolvida no Brasil e que, embora guarde intrínsecas relações, se distingue dos Estudos Legislativos ou da Gestão de Organizações Públicas. Entre as estruturas criadas para a modernização dos Parlamentos, estão as Escolas do Legislativo, espaços de capacitação e treinamento que emergiram a partir da década de 90 para qualificar o corpo administrativo que se atribuiu às Casas em função dos preceitos da Constituição de 1988. Neste sentido, a presente investigação procura responder ao seguinte problema de pesquisa: Como foram criadas e se desenvolveram as Escolas do Legislativo no Parlamento brasileiro? Tendo, como objetivo, explicar o surgimento das Escolas do Legislativo no contexto histórico da modernização do Parlamento. Para isso, desenvolve-se uma pesquisa exploratória de estudo de casos múltiplos com as três primeiras organizações legislativas que criaram suas Escolas: a Assembleia Legislativa de Minas Gerais, a Câmara dos Deputados e o Senado Federal. A relevância destas Escolas, para além de seu pioneirismo, está no fato de constituírem modelos para a referência de outras Casas legislativas que passaram a implementar também suas próprias Escolas. O estudo de casos é adotado em seu tipo histórico-organizacional, utilizando-se de documentos, discursos parlamentares, bibliografia e entrevistas narrativas para a coleta de dados dos casos estudados. Os dados emergidos do campo são organizados e analisados em duas perspectivas. Na perspectiva vertical, cada caso é analisado isoladamente para a construção do contexto histórico de criação e desenvolvimento das Escolas. Na perspectiva horizontal, quatro questões essenciais emergem da pesquisa e são discutidas nos três casos e com base na revisão teórica realizada. O resultado da pesquisa é um quadro analítico que apresenta os elementos de criação de cada uma das Escolas e suas posições em relação às questões transversais discutidas. Por fim, realiza-se uma síntese do trabalho desenvolvido, uma discussão das principais limitações da pesquisa e uma indicação de agenda de pesquisa com outras questões que devem ser exploradas no campo da administração parlamentar / Modernization is a frequent issue in the contemporary literature, especially regarding the social sciences, and whenever it takes place, quick change elements influence the entire society and its organizations. The present study deals with modernization processes inside organizations, and its main research object lies within the Parliaments: legislative organizations with specific characteristics of this law power. Thus, the paper contributes to the development of the researches on parliamentary administration, an area still poorly developed in Brazil that, in spite of its similarities, is different from the Legislative Studies or Public Organizations Management. Among the many structures created which seek the modernization of parliaments, there are the Legislative Schools, places established in the \'90s meant to provide corporative training to the administrative body, role attributed to the Houses due to the principles of the 1988 Constitution. Thus, this study aims at answering the following research problem: How were the Legislative Schools in the Brazilian Parliament created and developed? Its objective is to explain the establishment of Legislative Schools in the historical context of the Parliament modernization. In order to do so, an exploratory multiple-case study was developed, which investigated the three first legislative organizations that created their own Schools: the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais, the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. These schools present such relevance, not only because of being pioneers, but also due to their becoming reference to other Houses which are now implementing their Schools. The case study is carried out under a historical and organizational perspective, and data from the studied cases was collected by gathering documents, parliamentary speeches, literature research and narrative interviews, which were then analyzed vertically and horizontally. In the vertical perspective, each case is reviewed individually to rebuild the historical context of the establishment and development of the Schools. In the horizontal perspective, four key questions emerge from the research and are discussed in the three cases and based on the literature review performed. The research results in an analytic framework that presents elements of the establishment of each School and their positions in relation to the other discussed issues. Finally, find a summary of the study, a discussion of its major limitations and a suggested research agenda with other issues that should be exploited within the field of parliamentary administration

Constitutional development in England - from the outset to the 17th century The purpose of my thesis is to analyse the constitutional development in England from the fifth century to the beginning of the seventeenth century and it attempts to give a comprehensible and thorough summary of this period. The thesis is composed of ten chapters and its subchapters. The first chapter deals with the anglo-saxon period, which started in the fifth century with the arrival of german tribes to England and it is divided into three subchapters. The first subchapter analyzes not only the general historical development, but also some of the earliest laws of anglo- saxon kings. Second subchapter is concerned with the composition of the main authorities of anglo-saxon state, power of its rulers, officers of the king's court and with the role of the Christian Church, which was very important. The last subchapter focuses on the reign of Edward the Confessor and the enclosure of anglo-saxon period. Next chapter is concerned with the Norman period and it is composed of seven subchapters. These subchapters deal with the laws of William the Conqueror and the Domesday Book, feudalism in England, power of the king, chief officers of the state, organization of authorities of the kingdom, of the courts of law and...