Michael Rush

Constitutional History of the United Kingdom

Ann Lyon Cavendish Publishing: London, 2003. xliii + 476 pp., £19.95 pbk; ISBN 1 85941 746 9 Constitutional Change in the United Kingdom F. N. Forman Routledge & the Constitution Unit, UCL: London, 2002. xviii + 414 pp., £19.99 pbk; ISBN 0 415 23036 5

The Transformation of Legislative Elites: The Cases of Britain and Germany since the 1860s

Drawing on databases going back to the middle of the nineteenth century, this article examines how changes in the opportunity structures in political recruitment have influenced the socio-economic backgrounds and career patterns of British and German MPs. Extending opportunity structures enables legislatures to respond to socio-economic changes in society, but there may be a significant time-lag before they are reflected in the legislature. In spite of significant differences in their political history, there has been a convergence of socio-economic backgrounds and career patterns, driven largely by changes in the opportunity structures, which, particularly in the German case, preceded the full impact of changes in political culture. This convergence does not preclude significant differences, but these are principally the product of particular factors, such as party and electoral systems, and changes do not necessarily occur simultaneously, but the tendency towards similar educational and occupational backgrounds and similar career patterns remains.

2010 and Beyond

Is there evidence that MPs’ behaviour and attitudes are changed when they actually experience what it is like being an MP? To what extent do newcomers to the Westminster Parliament become ‘accustomed to’ its ways of working and, in parallel, ‘persuaded by’ the opportunity of doing things differently? These are the central questions we have been exploring in this book. Our findings show that MPs’ behaviour and attitudes do change and that the degree of change (including no change) is influenced by socialisation – functional, attitudinal and behavioural. What is the significance of these findings? Are they unique to the parliaments we have examined, with their particular political circumstances? Are there implications for future parliaments? Does our research have implications for parliaments, or other forms of legislative assembly, in other states?

Socio-Economic Composition and Pay and Resources in Second Chambers

Who the members of second chambers are and what resources they have to fulfil their role or roles as members of a legislature are relatively neglected topics. The least neglected aspect of composition is, of course, party affiliation, but that apart, little attention has been paid to socioeconomic composition, with one or two notable exceptions, such as the United States Senate and the UK House of Lords. In the latter case, however, far more attention has been focused on its hereditary membership than on more conventional socio-economic criteria. As for resources, here the focus has been largely on first rather than second chambers and, where the latter have been examined, principally on elected rather than non-elected chambers. Yet both are important – socioeconomic composition has important implications for theories of representation and the concept of representative government and may influence attitudes and legislative behaviour; the level of resources has more mundane but equally important implications for the effectiveness of legislators and legislatures. The information available on the socio-economic composition of second chambers and the resources available to their members is limited, but sufficient can be gleaned from various sources to enable a useful picture to emerge, a clear sense of how much second chamber members and resources match those of first chambers. Data on various aspects of composition and resources were therefore gathered on 14 countries – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States – but systematic data was not available on every country in respect of the aspects of composition and resources covered, as the subsequent tables demonstrate.

Representing the People: A Survey among Members of Statewide and Sub-state Parliaments

Anyone who has been involved in a collaborative study will be aware of the efforts involved, not to mention the problems that can arise. Kris Deschouwer and Sam Depauw are to be congratulated on editing a fascinating comparative study of legislatures, not least because it involved no fewer than 33 contributors. Moreover, although the book is based on a survey of 15 countries, it actually covers as many as 73 legislative bodies because, where appropriate, subnational as well as national legislatures were included. This greatly enhances the study. Using a variety of statistical techniques, the contributors explore various themes, beginning with MPs’ perceptions of their representative roles, extending the traditional trustee–delegate analysis. Subsequent chapters examine group representation, the extent to which women’s issues are addressed, the impact of electoral systems, party cohesion, inter-party contacts and party democracy, attitudes towards constituency representation, the role of the media, and career patterns in multi-level systems. With data from a 45-question questionnaire (usefully reproduced in an appendix), much ground is covered, but the approach throughout is determinedly comparative and rightly so. Thus, any reader wishing to extract a specific country focus would have some work to do, as only 14 (including one that provides fieldwork data) of the 52 tables and five of the 13 figures list countries. Indeed, although appearing in the text, countries are not listed individually in the index, but there is much to interest country specialists, particularly in the chapters on the representative roles of MPs, party cohesion, inter-party contacts, and constituency orientation. Bearing in mind the changes in the impact of traditional social cleavages in European politics and the growth of pressure group activity, it would have been interesting to have had a wider perspective on social group activity. In general, the editors conclude that institutions and parties matter, not in a simple way but in a complex, multifaceted fashion. An initial reaction to many of the findings could all too easily be that they are not all that surprising, but that is not the point. In a number of cases they confirm what we know from earlier studies, such as those of Maurice Duverger and Douglas Rae on electoral systems, or from single-country studies. Much more to the point is that this book extends our knowledge of European legislatures at the national and

The Role of the Member of Parliament

In his book, the Accidental MP, Martin Bell remarked, ‘Becoming an MP is one thing. Being an MP is quite another.’2 Bell had not expected to become a Member of Parliament (MP). Standing as an anti-sleaze candidate in 1997, he famously defeated the sitting Conservative MP, Neil Hamilton, who had been accused of abusing his position by accepting payments in return for parliamentary favours.3 Bell was unusual in that he was the first fully Independent MP to be elected since the abolition of the university seats in 1950; all other ‘independents’, of whom there were four, had been dissident party MPs who had successfully defied their party machines.4 However, Bell was not unusual in not expecting to be elected: all general elections produce candidates surprised to find themselves MPs, especially when one or more of the parties achieve unexpectedly large electoral swings, but most do so as candidates of an established party.

Parliamentary Reform: From Modernisation to Rebuilding

Parliament, it could be argued, is always in need of reform and there is never any shortage of proposals. However, whereas proposals for reform are perennial, actual reform is periodic and irregular. In 1997, the incoming Labour government swiftly appointed a Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House; in 2009, in its dying days, the Labour government, now led by Gordon Brown, appointed a House of Commons Reform Committee. Parallel to the Modernisation Committee, the Blair government set up a Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords; in 2010, the Brown government was still struggling with the ‘second stage’ of Lords’ reform, following the removal of most of the hereditary peers from the upper house in 1999. Alexandra Kelso’s book seeks to trace and explain the process of parliamentary reform, not just from 1997, but from the beginning of the twentieth century. Her choice of 1900 rests on the fact that, with the procedural changes that were adopted in 1906–07, the government’s ability to secure the passage of its legislative programme through the House of Commons was more or less complete. However, this was the culmination of a process which had begun half-way through the nineteenth century, when commentators such as Alpheus Todd (1887, p. xii) argued that the ‘great and continuing defect in all parliamentary governments, whether provincial or imperial, is the weakness of the executive authority’. Irish obstruction helped speed up the process of increasing executive control, but it was a process that was already underway, considerably facilitated by the growth of party cohesion from 1868 onwards. Kelso acknowledges these earlier developments but says little about them, yet they are an important part of the story. She also rightly argues that the Liberal government elected in 1906 had a radical legislative programme and wanted to enhance its ability to secure its passage, also conscious of the problem of the Conservative-dominated House of Lords. Yet the desire to enact a radical programme was not the motive for

Parliaments and citizens in Western Europe

Philip Norton (ed.). London: Frank Cass, 2002. 198 pp., £35 hbk, ISBN 0 7146 4835 3; £16.50 pbk, ISBN 0 7146 4387 4

One vote, one value: electoral re‐districting in English local government

Colin Railings, Michael Thrasher and James Downe. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002. 251pp., £39.95 hbk, ISBN 0 7546 2152 9