What explains the size of parliamentary staff?

Otjes, Simon

doi:10.1080/01402382.2022.2049068

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…But here too, as in national parliaments (cf. Otjes, 2022), it would be wrong to assume that there are no civil servants or political assistants supporting parliamentary work. Although this type of actors have in general received only marginal attention in political science and public administration, the European Parliament is one of the very few pockets where empirical research has in fact been undertaken on this class of actors (see Chapter 7, this volume).…”

Section: Demarcating Public Administrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public administration in the European Union

Brandsma

2024

Handbook on European Union Public Administration

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Section: Demarcating Public Administrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public administration in the European Union

Brandsma

2024

Handbook on European Union Public Administration

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“…Parliamentary staff help MPs navigate the legislative agenda. They take care of legislative and oversight activities by following the work of committees, the plenary and party groups (Busby, 2013; Jones, 2006; Otjes, 2022; Russell, 2004; Schiff and Smith, 1983; Russell, 2004). They write background notes, draft amendments, questions and plenary speeches, attend meetings with lobbyists, and develop relationships with other MPs and party groups.…”

Section: Parliamentary Allowancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blurred lines between electoral and parliamentary representation: The use of constituency staff among Members of the European Parliament

Hermansen

Pegan

2023

European Union Politics

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Parliamentarians receive public funding to employ local staff in the constituency. Local staff help members of parliament to execute their representative duties, but can also become an electoral asset. Drawing on theories of personal vote-seeking we study local staff as an example of constituency service. Modelling within-individual changes in local staff size among 1174 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), we find that the number of local staff increases before both European and national elections, and more so in candidate-centred than party-centred systems. Despite a single European Parliament (EP) staff system, EU citizens are represented differently depending on where they elect their members and the electoral system that applies. Attempts to mend the EU’s democratic deficit by strengthening MEPs’ contacts with citizens through local staff potentially means that European public money is used to fund EP incumbents’ electoral campaigns. We discuss the implications of our findings for the democratic functioning of the European multi-level system.

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“…57 Overall these examples reflect the long-standing role of officials to gather information, which in the case of (digital) public engagement translates into the "provision of information on how others do it and pointing out platforms on the web that make things more accessible for citizens." 58 Such as MPs rely on staff to collect information independent from the executive (Otjes, 2022), officials are also relying on IPIs to retrieve reliable and relevant information, get assistance and advice on the best ways possible to deliver basic administrative services such as "restructuring the parliamentary website" or "managing social networks" 59 ; but they also contribute substantially by acquiring, preparing and distributing information on best practices and how to implement it in their national contexts to various actors in the policy making-decision process.…”

Section: The Who Question: Institutions and Actors In (Digital) Publi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond national boundaries in the study of digital public engagement: Interparliamentary institutions and cooperation in the Austrian and Portuguese national parliaments

Serra-Silva

2022

Policy & Internet

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This study assesses the role of interparliamentary institutions (IPIs) and networks in the diffusion of new ideas and solutions of (digital) public engagement in national parliaments by using elite semistructured interviews from two case studies, Austria and Portugal. Evidence collected shows that both parliaments are strongly relying on IPIs to develop and implement digital public engagement activities to stay informed, eliminate the possibility of failure, reduce the administrative costs and uncertainty of IT planning and new experiences, and comply with standards of what is perceived to be a legitimate parliament. By showing that IPIs are vehicles of (digital) public engagement diffusion—parliaments learn from and emulate other parliaments perceived as successful through these institutions—this study has significant implications for our understanding of public engagement as well as of interparliamentary cooperation.

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What explains the size of parliamentary staff?

Cited by 6 publications

References 56 publications

Public administration in the European Union

Public administration in the European Union

Blurred lines between electoral and parliamentary representation: The use of constituency staff among Members of the European Parliament

Beyond national boundaries in the study of digital public engagement: Interparliamentary institutions and cooperation in the Austrian and Portuguese national parliaments

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