eprintid: 10090111 rev_number: 27 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/09/01/11 datestamp: 2020-03-05 10:20:57 lastmod: 2021-02-01 07:10:59 status_changed: 2020-03-05 10:20:57 type: thesis metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Serban, Ruxandra title: Questioning Prime Ministers: Procedures, Practices and Functions in Parliamentary Democracies ispublished: unpub divisions: UCL divisions: A01 divisions: B03 divisions: C03 note: Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. abstract: This thesis investigates parliamentary oral questioning mechanisms that involve prime ministers in parliamentary democracies. Considering the fact that prime ministers are powerful and visible actors in parliamentary democracies, and that accountability is a key component of democratic politics, it maps the mechanisms through which parliamentarians may question prime ministers in different countries, and explores the extent to which these mechanisms contribute to accountability, and the extent to which they perform other functions. The first research component is a survey of procedural rules regarding mechanisms through which parliamentarians may question prime ministers in 31 parliamentary democracies. It draws on an indepth examination of parliamentary rules of procedure, followed by a consultation with practitioners and officials in each country to uncover aspects of convention and practice. Subsequently, questioning mechanisms are classified based on dimensions such as their collective or individualised nature, the extent to which procedures allow more open or closed participation, as well as the degree of questioning exposure to which prime ministers are subjected. It then discusses how these dimensions might affect the practice of questioning. Drawing on these classifications, the second research component investigates the practice of questioning prime ministers in four countries: two using collective questioning mechanisms, where prime ministers are questioned together with ministers (Question Period in Canada, Question Time in Australia); and two using individualised mechanisms, where prime ministers are questioned alone (Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK, Oral Questions to the Taoiseach in Ireland). This second component relies on quantitative and qualitative content analysis of transcripts of parliamentary debates for each case study country. Departing from the assumption that parliamentary questioning mechanisms are designed to facilitate accountability, it investigates the degree to which they do so, and the degree to which they perform other functions, such as facilitating the expression of conflict, support, or territorial representation. date: 2020-01-28 date_type: published oa_status: green full_text_type: other thesis_class: doctoral_open thesis_award: Ph.D language: eng thesis_view: UCL_Thesis primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1743744 lyricists_name: Serban, Ruxandra lyricists_id: SERBA09 actors_name: Serban, Ruxandra actors_id: SERBA09 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public pages: 286 event_title: UCL (University College London) institution: UCL (University College London) department: Political Science thesis_type: Doctoral citation: Serban, Ruxandra; (2020) Questioning Prime Ministers: Procedures, Practices and Functions in Parliamentary Democracies. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10090111/9/Serban_10090111_Thesis_revised.pdf