Cristina Leston-Bandeira | University of Leeds (original) (raw)

Papers by Cristina Leston-Bandeira

examine the impact of a stage of the legislative process piloted by the House of Commons in 2013,... more examine the impact of a stage of the legislative process piloted by the House of Commons in 2013, during which the public were invited to comment on a bill undergoing parliamentary scrutiny. They explain why, despite an impressive response, the Public Reading Stage failed to make much of an impact. Recent years have seen increasing calls for more integration of the public's views directly into decision-making processes. However, attempts at implementing this in practice are still few and far between. Our recent article in the Journal of Legislative Studies analyses one such attempt: the 2013 Public Reading Stage (PRS) of the Children and Families Bill, an attempt by the House of Commons to integrate the public's view into the formal legislative process.

International Encyclopedia of Political Science

This special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies focuses on the Brazilian Parliament’s lo... more This special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies focuses on the Brazilian Parliament’s lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies. Its core concern is with its representative role, in the way it articulates policy-making capacity and interaction between citizens and parliament. In this Introduction we outline an historical and systemic profile of the Brazilian parliament before presenting our analytical framework. Our theoretical framework makes use of Polsby’s typology on Arena and Transformative legislatures, to situate our study of the wider representative role of the Chamber of Deputies. We finish by presenting the volume’s substantive chapters

Exploring Parliament

This text examines changes and continuities in the UK Parliament, the institution's contempor... more This text examines changes and continuities in the UK Parliament, the institution's contemporary work in its wide range of roles, its relevance in the twenty-first century, and the challenges it is facing today. It describes both the formal and informal work of Parliament and its members, focusing on common notions about the institution's relationship with the executive as a one-sided affair. The goal is to offer a rounded view of the work of Parliament as a multilayered and complex actor and its place in the wider political context as well as to highlight the importance of its historical development to its work today. The text looks at various aspects of Parliament, from governance to the legislative cycle, and even its design and space. This introduction discusses the ever changing relationship between the monarch, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords.

Politics Trove, 2018

Exploring Parliament offers a fresh perspective on an ancient institution. It provides a real-lif... more Exploring Parliament offers a fresh perspective on an ancient institution. It provides a real-life insight into the inner workings, impact, and relevance of twenty-first century Parliament. Short academic and practitioner chapters are combined with relevant and practical case studies, to provide an introduction to Parliament's structures, people, and practices. As well as covering the broader structure of UK Parliament, this text explains the role of small parties in law-making, the design and space of Parliament, and offers illuminating case studies on highly topical areas such as the Backbench Business Committee, the Hillsborough Inquiry and recent pieces of legislation such as the Assisted Dying Bill.

My childhood was spent between political demonstrations and party meetings. As Portuguese democra... more My childhood was spent between political demonstrations and party meetings. As Portuguese democracy grew, so did I. Politics has always been in my life. Instead of being part of it, I opted to study it. As the study of Portuguese politics is still in its infancy, there is ...

Parliamentary Affairs, 2018

Political scientists have a mixed record in predicting the political future; and so, as political... more Political scientists have a mixed record in predicting the political future; and so, as political scientists, we won't engage in expansive 'futurology' and 'guestimates' about the future of Parliament in this chapter. Instead, in exploring the future of parliamentary politics, we will invoke the words often attributed to Albert Einstein: 'The future is an unknown, but a somewhat predictable unknown. To look to the future we must first look back upon the past'. If we can identify what parliament was and is, and what it did and still does - which has been the central connecting thread interwoven in the preceding chapters - then we can provide a basis for exploring what we might expect parliament to be and do in the future. Individually, the 30 chapters of this book have explored what parliament does and why it does what it does. Collectively, these chapters provide an overarching assessment of the contemporary significance of the UK parliament in the UK&#39...

Exploring Parliament, 2018

This concluding chapter reflects on the future of parliamentary politics by identifying key puzzl... more This concluding chapter reflects on the future of parliamentary politics by identifying key puzzles implicit in previous discussions which raise fundamental questions about what Parliament is and why it exists. The goal is to determine the ‘predictable unknowns’ as starting points for exploring the future. Three principal puzzles that need ‘hard thinking’ in order to understand legislatures are considered: representation, collective decision-making, and their role in the political system. The chapter also examines the difficulties in reconciling ideas about popular sovereignty and direct public participation with notions of parliamentary sovereignty and indirect public participation in decision-making; the implications of the legislative task of disentangling UK law from EU law in the wake of Brexit for Parliament's recent strengthened scrutiny capacity; and how Parliament has integrated the core principles of representation, consent, and authorization into the legitimation of s...

The Journal of Legislative Studies, 2016

This special issue has discussed the wider representative role of the Brazilian Parliament’s lowe... more This special issue has discussed the wider representative role of the Brazilian Parliament’s lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies, through an analysis that has integrated the way it processes policy with how it communicates with citizens. Adopting as an overarching framework, Polsby’s typology on Arena vs. Transformative legislatures, the articles have discussed the institutionalisation process of the Chamber of Deputies, its role within the political process and its relationship with other political institutions, the policy-making process, new communication and information technologies used by the Chamber of Deputies and its capacity to promote interaction between citizens and parliament. The findings show that policy-making and communication capacities have grown in so far as democracy lasts. Another important finding relates to the crucial role played by the administrative body of the Chamber of Deputies, which acts itself as the key interactive link between citizens and parlia...

This comprehensive book analyses the development of the legislatures in the Iberian countries ove... more This comprehensive book analyses the development of the legislatures in the Iberian countries over the past 40 years, since democracy was introduced, to comparatively understand their role in these political systems and in sustaining their democratic systems. Sharing many historical developments and institutional characteristics, Spain and Portugal also present crucial differences, notably Spain’s pure parliamentary system, a King as Head of State and a quasi-federal structure, and Portugal’s semi-presidential democracy. Starting with a historical and institutional contextualization of these two legislatures, the book examines the most important organizational and behavioural features of legislative life in Iberian legislatures in a comparative perspective. It also shows how new legislatures develop resilience capacity to support lasting democratic systems as fully fledged institutionalized bodies. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Spain and Portugal, legislative politics and parliamentarianism, and more broadly to European politics and comparative politics, journalists and practitioners.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Journal of Legislative Studies, 2021

Legislative scholars are very good at explaining and analysing what legislatures do and how they ... more Legislative scholars are very good at explaining and analysing what legislatures do and how they do it. But the why questionwhy legislatures do what they do and why they matteris often taken for granted or not raised at all. Our objective in this paper is to focus attention back onto the 'why' question and to explore the grounds upon which legislative scholars, and others, might be encouraged to reconsider this basic question. In seeking to coax a reconsideration of the importance of legislatures, we direct attention towards processes of legitimation and why legislatures are invested in such processes across the world in the modern era. If, as we argue, an answer to the question of why legislatures matter is to be grounded in processes of legitimation, then deficiencies in those processes or the questionability of those processes also expose the contingent nature of such an answer.

Parliamentary Affairs, Mar 1, 2018

The 2017 General Election added considerably to the rich political drama evident in the UK in rec... more The 2017 General Election added considerably to the rich political drama evident in the UK in recent years. A contest supposed to be one of the most one-sided of all time confounded most predictions in yielding only the third hung parliament of the 20 UK postwar general elections. 'May heads for election landslide' trumpeted The Times on 19 April, the day after the election was calledand few demurred. Theresa May began her campaign in Bolton North East, where Labour had been in charge since 1997 and enjoyed an 8.4% lead over the Conservatives in 2015. The message from the Prime Minister was clear; this would be a rout in which the governing party would extend its majority and crush a left-wing Labour Party. The Conservatives assumed that many Labour voters would defect and that most of UKIP's votewhich had fallen by 20% in the previous month's council electionswould head their way. This volume analyses an extraordinary election, one which defied at least five supposed orthodoxies: firstly, that a campaign does not really matter; secondly that the Conservatives are adept at running such campaigns; thirdly, that a left-wing Labour manifesto is inevitably a 'suicide note'; fourthly that the combined Conservative-Labour share of the vote is in inevitable, long-term decline; and fifthly, that most young (18-24) people do not vote. Given these apparent truths, and the huge advantage Theresa May was recording in her personal ratings relative to Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, most commentators abandoned any previous caution in their interpretation of opinion polls. Yes, the polls had been wrong in 2015, but that was in the context of a tight race. The margins in 2017 were so wide, anything other than a Conservative majority was seen as unimaginable. Yet, opinion pollsters were keen to learn from the debacle of 2015, and were quietly experimenting with new methods and approaches.

Policy & Politics, 2019

This is a repository copy of Parliamentary petitions and public engagement: an empirical analysis... more This is a repository copy of Parliamentary petitions and public engagement: an empirical analysis of the role of e-petitions.

Journal of Law and Society, 2019

At Westminster, there are increasing pressures on select committees to publish in-house legal adv... more At Westminster, there are increasing pressures on select committees to publish in-house legal advice. We suggest that examining the process of deciding to publish provides useful insights into the provision, reception, and use of legal advice, and the dynamics of select committees generally. We argue that the autonomy of select committees to decide what use they make of evidence and advice they receive is, in practice, constrained by the intra-institutional dynamics and practices of select committees. Committee actors ± parliamentarians, clerks, and parliamentary lawyers ± each have overlapping, sometimes competing, roles. Most of the time, these roles and the responsibilities they encompass coincide, but the prospect of publication reveals clear tensions between the different actors. This is the politics of publication: the tactical approach of politicians is in tension with the stewardship of clerks and the professional norms of parliamentary lawyers. We suggest this tension will only increase in the near future.

Policy & Internet, 2019

The UK Parliament introduced an e-petitions system in 2015 with the aim of significantly enhancin... more The UK Parliament introduced an e-petitions system in 2015 with the aim of significantly enhancing its relationship with the public. We explore whether this aim is being met through the analysis of Twitter data from conversations on epetitions debated in Parliament. We use natural language processing, machine learning and social network analysis of Twitter data to explore what it shows about the extent of people's engagement, the contents of Twitter e-petition conversations, who is taking part and how they interact. Our findings provide interesting insights into how people perceive the e-petition procedures in terms of fairness and responsiveness, suggesting that petition parliamentary debates should be more inclusive of the original petitions' aims. The results also point to homophily tendencies present in the Twitter e-petition discussions.

Information Polity, 2013

This article explores how parliaments are using social media, assessing the role this plays in pu... more This article explores how parliaments are using social media, assessing the role this plays in public engagement. Relatively latecomers to the world of social media, parliaments have made considerable strides in the last couple of years with many now joining a platform that is still perceived as an unknown and vulnerable space for formal political institutions. We show that parliaments are using social media mainly to report parliamentary business, interacting with citizens only on the margins. We consider the extent to which this approach constitutes public engagement and explore the differences in strategy between parliamentary institutions. In our analysis we consider in particular the specificity of parliamentary institutions in their ability to use this type of tools effectively. We also reflect on the limitations and challenges these tools raise to an institution such as a parliament, namely in terms of engaging with the public. Our study includes an overview of social media accounts in parliaments across the world, being mainly based on a content analysis of a sample of Facebook and Twitter feeds from five European parliaments, supported by information drawn from elite interviews with senior parliamentary officials and representatives.

Party Politics, 2017

Do elected representatives have a time-constant representation focus or do they adapt their focus... more Do elected representatives have a time-constant representation focus or do they adapt their focus depending on election proximity? In this article, we examine these overlooked theoretical and empirical puzzles by looking at how reelection-seeking actors adapt their legislative behavior according to the electoral cycle. In parliamentary democracies, representatives need to serve two competing principals: their party and their district. Our analysis hinges on how representatives make a strategic use of parliamentary written questions in a highly party-constrained institutional context to heighten their reselection and reelection prospects. Using an original data set of over 32,000 parliamentary questions tabled by Portuguese representatives from 2005 to 2015, we examine how time interacts with two key explanatory elements: electoral vulnerability and party size. Results show that representation focus is not static over time and, in addition, that electoral vulnerability and party size...