Exploring Parliament

A fresh perspective on an evolving institution; Exploring Parliament offers an engaging and real-life insight into the inner workings, impact, and relevance of the twenty-first century UK Parliament. Short academic and practitioner chapters are combined with highly relevant and practical case studies, to provide a new and accessible introduction to Parliament's structures, people, and practices. As well as covering the broader structure of the UK Parliament, this text explains the role of backbench MPs in scrutinising government and campaigning the design and space of Parliament and the challenges facing MPs. It offers illuminating case studies on highly topical areas such as Brexit, COVID-19, and recent pieces of legislation such as the British Sign Language Act and Online Safety Act. New to this Edition - This edition has been updated to include content on the 2024 General Election. - Over half of the chapters are new or newly authored to reflect the changing nature and scholarship in the field. - An increased focus on diversity, including a new chapter on diversity and representation in the House of Commons. - Expanded coverage on devolved parliaments, including a new chapter on interparliamentary relations. Key Features - Draws on the perspectives of academics and parliamentary practitioners, to give students an authentic insight into the workings of Parliament. - Provides a series of evidence-based case studies so that students can fully understand the reality of Parliament in practice. - Explores the relationships between the different structures, parliamentarians and practitioners within Parliament on both a formal and an informal level, to enable student to truly understand the key processes and actors that shape Parliament.

1 - Introduction
2 - Parliament in context
3 - Westminster in the UK context
4 - The political organisation of parliament
5 - The governance of parliament
6 - Supporting Members and Peers
7 - The significance of rituals in parliament
8 - Spaces and places in parliament
9 - The legislative process
10 - Parliamentary scrutiny and influence on government bills
11 - Delegated legislation
12 - Post-legislative scrutiny
13 - Interparliamentary relations
14 - Private Members' Bills
15 - Campaigning to change law and policy
16 - The Westminster Model of accountability
17 - Select Committees in the House of Commons
18 - Questioning the government
19 - Scrutiny by the House of Lords
20 - Scrutiny in challenging times
21 - Parliament and the media
22 - Diversity and representation in the House of Commons
23 - Women in the House of Commons
24 - MPs and their constituencies
25 - The role of a backbencher
26 - Representation in the Lords
27 - Parliament and public engagement
28 - Conduct and standards of parliamentarians
29 - Challenges facing MPs
30 - Trust in parliament
31 - Reforming parliament
32 - A Parliament for the Union?
33 - Conclusion: the future of parliamentary politics

Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira is a Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds. She has worked on parliaments for nearly 30 years. She is Chair of the International Parliament Engagement Network and a previous Chair of the UK Study of Parliament Group (2019-22). Professor Leston-Bandeira's research focuses on public engagement with parliament, having published widely on the topic and having secured funding from the AHRC, the British Academy, ESRC and the Leverhulme Trust. She regularly gives evidence to parliaments on public engagement, having held a fellowship with the Petitions Committee of the UK House of Commons in 2016-17. She is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing the quality and innovation of her teaching, including a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship (2012) and the Political Studies Association Bernard Crick Main Prize for Outstanding Teaching (2010). Dr Alexandra Meakin is Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on parliamentary governance and the plans to repair the buildings of the UK Parliament (known as the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster). Dr Meakin's PhD 'Understanding the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster: A case study of institutional change in the UK Parliament' was awarded by the University of Sheffield in 2019 and received the 2020 Walter Bagehot Prize for best dissertation in the field of government and public administration by the Political Studies Association. She is a member of the Study of Parliament Group and the International Parliament Engagement Network, and a former convenor of the Political Studies Association Specialist Group on Parliaments and Legislatures. Prior to entering academia, Dr Meakin worked for over a decade in Westminster, for select committees in the House of Commons and for MPs. Dr Louise Thompson is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on legislative scrutiny, committees and political parties in the House of Commons. She is the co-editor of Parliamentary Affairs and a POST parliamentary fellow (2024-2025) undertaking research with the UK Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. She was previously the Co-Convenor of the Political Studies Association's specialist group on Parliaments and Legislatures (2014-2018). In 2022, Dr Thompson was awarded the Political Studies Association's Richard Rose Prize for a distinctive contribution to the study of British Politics.