Conflictual behaviour in legislatures: exploring and explaining adversarial remarks in oral questions to prime ministers

Serban, Ruxandra (2023) Conflictual behaviour in legislatures: exploring and explaining adversarial remarks in oral questions to prime ministers. British Journal of Politics and International Relations. ISSN 1369-1481

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Abstract

Questioning mechanisms such as Prime Minister’s Questions in the United Kingdom and Question Time in Australia are notoriously adversarial. Much less is known about whether and how questioning facilitates conflict in other legislatures. This question is particularly important given the criticism that excessive adversarialism may hinder the performance of accountability, and hence may be detrimental to the work of legislatures. Building on legislative studies literature, this article presents the first comparative study of conflict in oral parliamentary questions; in so doing, it explores patterns of conflictual remarks in questions addressed to prime ministers in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It posits that institutional culture, party discipline, government and opposition status and the authority of the Speaker are key factors in explaining the performance of conflict, and that rules of procedure alone are not enough to curb the manifestation of conflict in legislatures where questioning is a known opportunity for criticism.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/BPI
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) J Political Science > JC Political theory
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2023 09:36
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2024 16:24
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/119808

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