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The Policy Power of the Westminster Parliament: The “Parliamentary State” and the Empirical Evidence

Russell, M; Cowley, P; (2015) The Policy Power of the Westminster Parliament: The “Parliamentary State” and the Empirical Evidence. Governance , 29 (1) pp. 121-137. 10.1111/gove.12149. Green open access

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Abstract

Drawing on several large research projects, and using both quantitative and qualitative evidence, this article assesses the policy influence of the Westminster parliament. Frequently dismissed as powerless in both academic and more popular accounts, we instead show evidence of an institution with significant policy influence, at successive stages of the policy process. Conventional accounts have focused too much on the decision-making stage, to the exclusion of parliament's role at earlier and later policy stages. Critics have also focused disproportionately on visible influence, overlooking behind-the-scenes negotiations and the role of anticipated reactions. Based on analysis of over 6,000 parliamentary votes, 4,000 legislative amendments, 1,000 committee recommendations, and 500 interviews, we conclude that Westminster's influence is both substantial and probably rising.

Type: Article
Title: The Policy Power of the Westminster Parliament: The “Parliamentary State” and the Empirical Evidence
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/gove.12149
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gove.12149
Language: English
Additional information: © 2015 The Authors. Governance published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Political Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1469914
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