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The EU’s role to assist Turkey in its democratization efforts has been debated during Turkey’s candidacy. However, in the second decade of the 21st century, this role of the EU lost its visibility while Turkey seemed to lose its interest in reform movements. This paper, inspired by Pevehouse, defines the EU as a supplier of democratization mechanisms and Turkey as an actor in need. Although lack of enthusiasm and disengagement have come to characterize Turkey-EU relations, this study aims to demonstrate that there are differences between the governing and the opposition actors’ views on the EU and its role in the democratization of Turkey. Data collected from the speeches of opposition parties’ parliamentarians between 1 January 2011 and 31 August 2016 demonstrates the similarities observed in these parties’ concerns regarding democratic practices and the perception of the EU as an actor strengthening democracy, while indicating that the EU, as a supplier, overlooked their concerns during the process.

This article examines the 70th anniversary of the British National Health Service (NHS) through the lens of Parliamentary Debates in the House of Commons, focusing on the closest broad debate on the NHS to each anniversary. It draws on interpretive content analyses, exploring the following themes: creation, principles, stewardship, achievements, and problems. Although there is some continuity over time, it suggests more nuanced conclusions in that while most debates have discussed most of the themes, their salience has varied over time. Issues such as who created the NHS, funding the NHS, breaking principles appear to be hardy perennials, and are likely to be debated but not resolved, generating more heat than light, on the 80th Anniversary of the NHS.

Slum eradication has been a concern in South Asian cities since the colonial times. Legislation and policies are being framed both out of national desires and international strategies. However, very little is being studied on how these legislation and policies come into being, specifically geography's influence in their formulation. The article analyses parliamentary debates from India (Rajya Sabha, 1953–2014), and outlines the process of historical, political, and institutional dominance of Delhi. It shows that the slum legislation and policies in India are formulated by abstracting cases from the Delhi slums. This knowledge hegemony of Delhi is discussed within the growing consideration towards urban theory's southern shift, which puts the Southern cities (megacities) as underdogs. The paper argues that at a regional level, these megacities exert the same hegemony that the southern theory wants to avoid. The results argue towards broadening the southern theory and ordinary city discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These pages analyse the qualities required of parliamentarians in Peru from the Constitution of 1860, the regulatory framework until 1920. With this aim, we used the speeches pronounced by the parliamentarians in the development of their functions, which allows an approach to the political culture of liberal elites. The objective of this paper is to analyse the perception of parliamentarians about themselves and their role in Parliament, and how one of the basic principles of nineteenth century liberalism operated in this sense: the principle of distinction. Finally, it can be affirmed that the positions of deputies and senators acted as political categories defined by the own parliamentarians, who considered their role as different and superior to that of the electors. Therefore, it was necessary to restrict the space of the Congress to a "distinguished" sector of the population, through the imposition of a series of requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Spagna Contemporanea is the property of Viella Editrice srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Investigación Lingüística is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores what happens when the term "austerity" becomes a global catchword. Specifically, we study how this term has been used in national policy making in the Portuguese and Spanish parliaments from the 1970s until recently. We show that although Portugal and Spain were in a somewhat different situation regarding the 2008 economic crisis, the increased popularity of the term austerity occurred practically simultaneously in the Portuguese and Spanish parliaments. This suggests that the term's popularity in political debates is not solely determined by a nation's political or fiscal situation. Rather, our contention is that employing the term austerity to discuss government policies became a global fashion after the fiscal crisis of 2008. The study also shows why austerity became an increasingly popular concept: the term changed from being mainly used in fiscal policy to being commonly used in other policy areas too. Related Articles: Exadaktylos, Theofanis, and Nikolaos Zahariadis. 2014. "Quid pro Quo: Political Trust and Policy Implementation in Greece during the Age of Austerity." Politics & Policy 42 (1): 160‐183. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12058 Monza, Sabina, and Eva Anduiza. 2016. "The Visibility of the EU in the National Public Spheres in Times of Crisis and Austerity." Politics & Policy 44 (3): 499‐524. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12163 Sager, Fritz, and Markus Hinterleitner. 2016. "How do Credit Rating Agencies Rate? An Implementation Perspective on the Assessment of Austerity Programs during the European Debt Crisis." Politics & Policy 44 (4): 783‐815. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12165 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early twentieth century saw many democracies adopt proportional representative systems. The textbook explanation, pioneered by Rokkan, emphasize between‐party electoral competition; the rise of the Socialist vote share made Bourgeois parties prefer PR systems to maximize their seat share. While appealing, this account is not entirely compelling. Consequently, scholars are investigating within‐party explanations of support for such reforms. Particularly, Cox, Fiva, and Smith show how list PR enable party leaders to discipline members and build cohesive parties. Relying on roll‐call votes across the Norwegian 1919 electoral reform from two‐round single‐member plurality to closed‐list PR, they show that the internal party cohesion increased following the reform. We investigate how the Norwegian electoral reform changed the content of parliamentary speeches. Comparing speeches from MPs present both before and after the reform, we show how parties become more cohesive in parliamentary debates under list PR than they were under the single‐member‐district system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative research methods have traditionally been criticised for lacking rigor, and impressionistic and biased results. Subsequently, as qualitative methods have been increasingly used in social work inquiry, efforts to address these criticisms have also increased. Applied thematic analysis provides structure and integrates reflexivity in qualitative research using textual data. In this article, we describe how applied thematic analysis was operationalised in a document analysis of the official records of parliamentary debates in the Australian State of Victoria relating to the introduction of Permanent Care Orders, an alternative to adoption for children residing out-of-home and unable to be safely reunified with their parents. We present this example to extend the knowledge base regarding applied thematic analysis and to demonstrate how step-by-step implementation of a purposeful methodology using trustworthy documentary data can effectively increase rigor and transparency, thereby reducing potential bias, in a qualitative analysis. First, we clarify key terms; then discuss the challenges of analysing textual data; consider the value of parliamentary debates as a textual data source; and provide a detailed description of the processes undertaken in the document analysis. Finally, we reflect on the application of applied thematic analysis in our study, highlighting its value in strengthening qualitative social work research using document analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts and their discursive representations involve, apart from the spacio-temporal dimension, also the socio-ideological and axiological positions. These prompt the desired emotional response from the audience in a form of authorization for the intended action. All these dimensions are mainly construed by presenting series of assertions by creating the dichotomy self-other and by triggering implicatures that contribute to the preferred interpretations of the presented representations. This paper aims to examine the role of quotes and historical analogies triggered by quotes in discourse, concretely, it focuses on the way the Ukrainian conflict is proximized in the US and the Czech political discourse, namely in the parliamentary debates and governmental statements (November 2013–December 2014). The theoretical framework applied is the proximization approach (Cap 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017) which is complemented by the studies that explore the pragmatic functions of quoting in discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parliamentary debates and the discussion on different law proposals are a key part of the process of policy making. We argue in this article that a high economic problem pressure in the region an MP represents will affect the MP's legislative speechmaking. We also hypothesise that parties tend to coordinate their speakers in parliament to display a cohesive profile in the domain of labour, employment and immigration issues, i.e., in issue areas which reflect redistributive policies that are highly salient for almost all parties. We evaluate our expectations based on an analysis of Swedish parliamentary debates on labour, employment and immigration policy during the period between 1994 and 2014. The findings show that parliamentary parties coordinate speechmaking: Those MPs who represent economically troubled districts are less likely to appear in plenary debates, as well as MPs who deviate programmatically from the party line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how politicians employ metaphors to express starting points in British parliamentary debates. Because these metaphors are conceptual tools that may have presuppositions and entailments that are not in line with the ideas and values of all discussion parties, political opponents can resist them by advancing argumentative criticisms. This paper aims to explore how different types of metaphor can be used to express starting points, and how various types of responses can be instrumental to achieving diverging outcomes in the discussion stage at which starting points are commonly decided. To this end, we present a number of case studies of resistance to metaphorically expressed starting points found in British Public Bill Committee debates. Our analysis reveals that metaphors can be important strategies in parliamentary debates when starting points are established between parties, and that resisting them seems to be a pertinent skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study focuses on the discursive construction of the UK's identity in the European Union (EU) in the debates of the British House of Commons. The data come from the Hansard, and the time period analysed is from the start of the UK's membership in the European Community (EC) in 1973 up to the general election of 2015, in which Brexit, that is, the national referendum on leaving the EU, was one of the main themes. Methods of corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) were adopted in the analysis of the debates. The findings suggest that even though the identity of a 'leader' in the EU has been frequently constructed in parliamentary discourse, a competing representation of the United Kingdom as an outsider and as a nation insecure of its role in the EU has been strongly present throughout the membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of French Journal of British Studies / Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique is the property of Centre de Recherches et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An article is devoted to the proceedings of a General Sejm session in the interregnum of 1733 (so-called convocational Sejm). The reflection is focused on actions of the archbishop of Gniezno — Teodor Potocki, at the time the prime senator and the president of the government. Achieving his political goals required to conduct a Sejm session smoothly. Potocki wanted to enact the law that would exclude political opponents of Stanisław Leszczyński in the future election. To ensure this and neutralize political rivals, the archbishop decided to break old-Polish parliamentary rules, consequently blocked the free discussion and refused to accept dissent announced by deputies. It caused an enormous political crisis, led to the questioning of the Sejm resolutions and, finally, to a failure of Leszczyński’s candidacy. The main purpose of the article is to show that the old-Polish mechanisms of the political system can be seen as feudal “deliberative democracy” based on freedom of political debate, unanimity in enacting laws, and weak government. By using an example of the Sejm in 1733 and its failure, the author tries to assess the causes and mechanisms of the crisis of old-Polish parliamentarism during the liberum veto era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In national policymaking speakers commonly refer to models and policies adopted elsewhere as a means to justify a bill. However, empirical analysis of parliamentary talk in eight national parliaments (Argentina, Canada, Chile, Finland, Mexico, Russia, Spain and the USA) reported in this article showed an interesting relationship between two types of justifications: of the eight countries compared, the ones that rank lowest in references to the international community as means to justify or criticize domestic legislation rank highest in the frequency with which national self-image is evoked. Yet these two types of justification exist in the same debates, because the occurrence of both of these discourses correlates with debate length. The variation is due to differences between political cultures: in countries like Argentina and the USA, where national self-image is employed most frequently, speakers have at their disposal stories that bolster beliefs about the country's uniqueness. In contrast, in the parliaments of Canada and Finland, where references to national self-image are most infrequent, references to the country's history are rare, and talk about national self-image is entwined with international references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is it that when debating the economic crisis, actors in the Portuguese parliament invoke more frequently countries affected by the crisis, whereas actors in the Spanish parliament invoke economically well-off countries more often? This article explores this mystery by studying how and why certain countries are evoked in the decision-making process. The analysis reveals that the actors mention different countries to contextualize the nation. We argue the actors in these two countries resort to different reference groups to identify or distance the nation in this concrete period even if they present similar challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Historia is the property of Associacao Nacional dos Professores Universitarios de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Energy policy debates include claims on desirable futures made amidst uncertainty over expected developments in energy. • Carbon neutrality is identified as a sociotechnical imaginary that unites political actors across governance scales. • Differences lie in the proposed means for attaining carbon neutrality. • Parliamentarians stress the predictability and stability of policy, while city councilors favor adaptive policy measures. • Analysis shows relevance of distinguishing between sociotechnical imaginaries and proposed policy paths to attain them. This article examines how political actors at different scales present desirable governance options for reaching carbon neutrality in Finland. The analysis is based on documentary materials and speeches in the national parliament of Finland and the city council of Helsinki in the years 2011–2015. I show how in Finland carbon neutrality serves as a broad sociotechnical imaginary that unites political actors across scales. Due to its interpretative flexibility, this imaginary accommodates different pathways to attain it. While politicians in the national parliament call for a stable and predictable policy environment, politicians on the city council demand adaptive and flexible policy measures for reaching carbon neutrality. What is presented as "good policy" for carbon neutrality differs significantly across the two levels of governance. This demonstrates the importance of distinguishing between sociotechnical imaginaries and the proposed policy means to attain them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions is the property of Editions EHESS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad: Revista Latinoamericana is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyzes the rhetorical formats used by Austrian members of parliament (MPs) to express disagreement with previous speakers during the so-called 'inaugural speech debates'. During these debates, MPs position themselves publicly as either government or opposition party representatives. Disagreeing with previous debate contributions represents a positioning practice that focuses on the interpersonal plane of interaction. The strict procedural rules of the debates, however, prevent MPs from engaging in genuine conflict talk. MPs rather use four rhetorical formats for signalling conflict with a previous speaker. This paper analyzes these strategies as well as their use by different groups of MPs and discusses their face aggravating/ impoliteness potential. Finally, it relates the results to previous studies of face work in political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy, legal and service configuration of a child and family welfare system reflects the historically predominant ideological perspectives relating to children, families, community and state. Examination of parliamentary debates provides a window on the discourses relating to policy and legislative change in a jurisdiction. This article presents a document analysis of parliamentary debates in the Australian state of Victoria using Applied Thematic Analysis to investigate the key issues and ideas that informed consideration of the Bills associated with the 1989 introduction of Permanent Care Orders—a special form of guardianship preferred to adoption for children drifting in out-of-home care. Four primary themes were identified: the rhetoric of rights; the 'hierarchy of family' debate; child protection is everybody's business; and the politics of influence. Interpreted using Fox Harding's typology of ideological perspectives in Western child welfare, these findings reinforce that different views about family formation emerge at times of social transition, in turn, influencing the political discourse that shapes the policy and legislative approach to child and family welfare. Permanency planning policies supporting children's connections to their biological families were established in Victoria in the 1980s, but now appear to be shifting to more paternalist protectionist and laissez-faire orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the reference statements and rhetorical functions of politicians' reactive ("uptaking") statements in parliamentary debates as well as their self-positioning effects. Uptaking moves may be used by speakers for pursuing strategic, global discourse aims. The specific properties of such 'uptaking' utterances and their sequential embedding in the unfolding discourse provide analysts with cues of speakers' global interactional goals. Results indeed show how global and local pragmatic factors impact content, form, and rhetorical function of MPs' uptaking statements. The data comprises four Austrian parliamentary sessions, which follow the inaugural speech each newly appointed Austrian chancellor has to deliver in the Austrian national assembly at the beginning of a legislative term. Overall, four fifths of the uptaking discourse units (consisting of 'reference to previous statement plus comment') refer to the government program, the inaugural speech or a previous MPs' statement. Whereas a closer investigation of the reference statements seems to indicate a left wing vs. right wing rhetorical pattern (with left wing and center parties referring to 'official' sources, while right wing parties set their own topical agenda), investigating the rhetorical functions of the uptaking discourse units reveals a clear government vs. opposition (but no party-specific) rhetoric: Government party MPs praise the government program (or the inaugural speech), opposition party speakers criticize it. Both groups thus focus on the interpersonal plain of interaction. In contrast, argumentative (or counter-argumentative) uptaking discourse units which would indicate speakers' willingness to enter into a rational discourse (in a Habermasian sense) with their political opponents are extremely rare. Through their rhetorical activities, the vast majority of government and opposition speakers thus reinforce and perpetuate already known political stances and affiliations in front of a third party (i.e. the general public watching the debates via TV or Internet livestream) rather than presenting themselves as rational, problem-focused politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the influence of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic on legislation and parliamentary debates. The author tries to ascertain whether the MPs consider the existing case law of the Constitutional Court and the potential possibility of constitutional review when debating bills, and whether they perceive the court's case law to be binding. In order to do so, the author analyses mentions about the Constitutional Court case law and its decision making in the debates in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament in the election period 2013-2017 by both statistical and qualitative methods. He concludes that the MPs actively refer to the Constitutional Court in their debates and (rhetorically at least) they show great respect or even deference to the court. They thus enable the court to influence both the content of laws and the legislative procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Right-wing populists are on the rise in Europe in the last decade. Their populism undermines one of the central pillars of democracy, the political discourse. Populism affects the quality of political debates in parliaments. With the emergence of the "Alternative für Deutschland" (AfD) a populist party became relevant nationally for the first time in over sixty years. By applying the concept of Cognitive Complexity as an instrument to measure deliberative quality, we analyze to what extend the discourse quality in the German Bundestag in debates on immigration policies varied over the 18th legislative period. Cognitive Complexity is measured quantitatively by applying a linguistic approach based on the LIWC dictionary. Despite our initial expectations, there are no trends detectable and the rise of the populist AfD does not alter the discourse quality so far. Nonetheless, there exist major differences in discourse quality between the parties, most notably opposition parties have a lower discourse quality in their statements than governing parties. In addition, individual characteristics of the speaker such as gender, age or electoral ty pe do not render any differences. However, there seem to the differences depending on the federal state in which the speaker's electoral district lies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Lobbying is a significant component of the modern politics industry in Britain, but we know relatively little about its historical origins and evolution. This article draws on parliamentary debates and three databases which together account for 51 newspaper titles, in order to explore how lobbying was discussed in parliament and the media between 1800 and 1950, and to gauge the growing professionalisation of lobbying. Perceptions of lobbying became somewhat less negative over the period; there are relatively few reports or allegations of corruption associated with lobbying; and lobbying by the railway industry seems to have been less substantial, while public sector lobbying was more significant, than is commonly supposed. Direct advocacy with policymakers is overwhelmingly the dominant tactic used by lobbyists of the period, with few reports of coalitions or grass‐roots campaigns. Particular concerns were expressed about the influence of lobbying around private bills. While lobbying back‐bench MPs and parliamentary committees (rather than ministers and civil servants) accounted for over 80% of the activity revealed across the whole period, there are signs by the middle of the 20th century that the focus of lobbyists is beginning to turn away from Westminster and towards Whitehall. The article paints a detailed view of the scale, scope, and significance of lobbying as it was developing into a national and systematic industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]