Parliamentary practices and the transformation of political issues

How do parliaments help transform the cases and issues they are handling? This was the topic of a paper given by Kristin Asdal last week.

On March 3, Kristin Asdal gave a paper co-written with Little Tools colleague Bård Hobæk. The paper was based on their current work on an upcoming book with the preliminary title "Parliamentary Practices and the Nature of Constitutional Power: The Whale and the Legislator" (expected publication in 2017).

In the paper, Kristin and Bård analyze a set of fascinating debates in the Norwegian Parliament (the "Storting") during 1890-1910 in which Members of Parliament reflect upon their role vis-a-vis the executive branch of government, and how their hands-on, practical work with the cases submitted to them from the ministries was the foundation of their ability to assert expertise nad authority over the issues at hand. Through this process of hands-on work, regulated by a detailed set of parliamentary procedures, Kristin and Bård argue, the Members also contributed to transforming the issues at hand.

The paper, which was given in Norwegian, is titled "Parliamentarisk praksis som sakkyndighet: Det norske systemet?", and was given as part of a half-day seminar in the honor of the Norwegian historian Sissel Myklebust, a long-time associate professor at TIK who recently retired.

The paper will soon be published on this website as the first in a series of Little Tools working papers.

Published Mar. 7, 2016 11:32 AM - Last modified Sep. 12, 2016 1:35 PM