This book - previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies - asks why legislative unity is one of the distinguishing features of modern political parties.

Setting the agenda for parliament is the most significant institutional weapon for governments to shape policy outcomes, because governments with significant agenda setting powers, like France or the UK, are able to produce the outcomes they prefer, while governments that lack agenda setting powers, such as the Netherlands and Italy in the beginning of the period examined, see their projects significantly altered by their Parliaments. With a strong comparative framework, this coherent volume examines fourteen countries and provides a detailed investigation into the mechanisms by which governments in different countries determine the agendas of their corresponding parliaments. It explores the three different ways that governments can shape legislative outcomes: institutional, partisan and positional, to make an important contribution to legislative politics. It will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, legislative studies/parliamentary research, governments/coalition politics, political economy, and policy studies.

Legislatures are arguably the most important political institution in modern democracies. The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies, written by some of the most distinguished legislative scholars in political science, provides a comprehensive and up-to-date description and critical assessment of the state of the art in this key area.

The Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies offers a state-of-the-art assessment of the functioning of political representation in liberal democracies. In 34 chapters the world's leading scholars on the various aspects of political representation address eight broad themes: The concept and theories of political representation, its history and the main requisites for its development; elite orientations and behavior; descriptive representation; party government and representation; non-electoral forms of political participation and how they relate to political representation; the challenges to representative democracy originating from the growing importance of non-majoritarian institutions and social media; the rise of populism and its consequences for the functioning of representative democracy; the challenge caused by economic and political globlization: what does it mean for the functioning of political representation at the national leval and is it possible to develop institutions of representative democracy at a level above the state that meet the normative criteria of representative democracy and are supported by the people? The various chapters offer a comprehensive review of the literature on the various aspects of political representation. The main organizing principle of the Handbook is the chain of political representation, the chain connecting the interests and policy preferences of the people to public policy via political parties, parliament, and government. Most of the chapters assessing the functioning of the chain of political representation and its various links are based on original comparative political research. Comparative research on political representation and its various subfields has developed dramatically over the last decades so that even ten years ago a Handbook like this would have looked totally different.

With nearly 600 cross-referenced entries, The Language of Canadian Politics offers brief essays on the many facets of the Canadian political system, including institutions, events, laws, concepts, and public policies. Concisely written, it is an important resource for people interested in contemporary politics, as well as those interested in the historic context of contemporary political behaviour. Readers not familiar with Canadian government and politics will find the book an invaluable introduction; others will welcome this updated indispensable reference. The fourth edition builds on the strengths of earlier editions. Almost every entry has been revised to reflect contemporary Canadian political events, and many new ones have been added. The results and immediate aftermath of the 2006 federal election are included in various updated entries. There are entries on the merged Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties as well as new entries on the Anti-Terrorist Act, the Public Safety Act, and the Council of the Federation. The Sponsorship Scandal and the Gomery reports are included in several entries. There is new information on National Security Certificates, and the O’Connor inquiry into the "extraordinary rendition" of Maher Arar comprises part of the revised material on commissions of inquiry. As a further resource, Internet sites have been added to many of the entries.

This book questions the reasons why presidential democracies more likely to break down than parliamentary ones.

By whatever name they are known (Parliaments, Legislatures, or Assemblies, to name but three) legislative assemblies in democratic societies face the twin challenges of institutional capacity and accountability to their citizens. In addressing these challenges, assemblies vary in the extent to which they serve the respective interests of three critical sets of actors: their members, party leaders, and voters. In this book, Shane Martin and Kaare W. Strøm identify three ideal types of democratic assemblies - the members' assembly, the leaders' assembly, and the voters' assembly - and analyze national legislative assemblies in the world's 68 most populous democracies, from Finland to Papua New Guinea, in light of these models. Based on extensive new cross-national data, they trace the implications of the three assembly types for the design, internal organization, resources, and powers of democratic national assemblies, develop indices of each assembly type, and score each of the 68 legislative assemblies on these indices. The analysis of legislative re-election rates in these countries reveals that the fate of incumbents depends on member resources as well as on leadership control, but is ultimately constrained by voter confidence. In conclusion, the authors discuss the past and future trajectories of legislative assemblies, including their susceptibility to democratic backsliding.

Fifty years after the creation of the Fifth Republic, French politics is undergoing profound changes. The election of Nicolas Sarkozy has announced a general review of the French political system. A special committee – the comité constitutionnel – is currently drafting a catalogue of potential reforms. Debates focus on issues like presidentialization, parliamentary scrutiny of the executive or the creation of a popular initiative to trigger constitutional review of given legislative texts. These discussions reflect long-standing trends in the Fifth Republic. This volume aims at analysing those trends and at outlining the major perspectives for future development. In particular it puts the French political system in comparative perspectives and provides in-depth analysis of the evolution of the major political institutions and their relations. The volume argues that substantial reforms have helped to partially reshape French politics. Yet, it also shows that the fundamental characteristics of semi-presidential government have stood firm. The question is whether current debates and subsequent reforms are likely to alter the current pattern. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Compared to other countries, Canada's Parliament shows a high level of party unity when it comes to legislative voting. This was not always the case, however. One hundred years ago, this sort of party discipline was not as evident, leading scholars to wonder what explains the growing influence of political parties in the Canadian Parliament. In Lost on Division, Jean-François Godbout analyses more than two million individual votes recorded in the House of Commons and the Senate since Confederation, demonstrating that the increase in partisanship is linked to changes in the content of the legislative agenda, itself a product of more restrictive parliamentary rules instituted after 1900. These rules reduced the independence of private members, polarized voting along partisan lines, and undermined Parliament's ability to represent distinct regional interests, resulting in – among other things – the rise of third parties. Bridging the scholarship on party politics, legislatures, and elections, Lost on Division builds a powerful case for bringing institutions back into our understanding of how party systems change. It represents a significant contribution to legislative studies, the political development literature, and the comparative study of parliaments.

This book is a reference work with an encyclopedic range, offering contemporary and systematic comparisons between the United States and 17 other economically advanced, stable liberal democracies, as well as some more global comparisons. It offers international data on as many aspects of social life as possible, from taxation to traffic accidents, homicide rates to health expenditure, and interest rates to internet usage. Wherever possible, it offers not only the most recent available data but also trends over decades. The discussion focuses on changes over time and comparisons between countries. Sometimes the contrasts are striking; sometimes the commonalities are more instructive. Often national political debates are conducted in a vacuum, and examining comparative data on policies, performance, and prospects can give a better perspective.