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Crises, Parliaments, and How They Relate

Parliaments and legislatures are central institutions in political systems to provide legitimacy. In crisis situations, that currently seem to abound, parliaments have been diagnosed as side-stepped, fitting into a broader trend of legislative decline. Based on a fundamental discussion about what parliaments and crises are and how best to study them, it becomes clear that three relationships must be considered: First, what role parliaments in crisis situations play, second, how crises are dealt with in parliaments and third, whether this can lead to a crisis of parliaments. The article lays the conceptual groundwork for future academic study of these issues and highlights the need to identify the determinants of variety. This can help for a better understanding of parliaments in the political system and help to make institutions resilient for future crises.

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Parliamentary Control in Times of Crisis: How Can It Be Evaluated? Reflections on the Example of the German Bundestag and the French Assemblée nationale at the Beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic

After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the functioning of parliamentary control of the German Bundestag and the French Assemblée nationale was criticised. While the criticism in France focused mainly on legal obstacles; in Germany it was especially the work of the opposition parliamentary groups that was judged to be inadequate. However, the criticism left open why certain criteria were applied and to what extent they are recommendable or sufficient for an assessment of parliamentary control activities. This paper addresses this research gap by asking which criteria could be used for a more systematic evaluation of parliamentary control in times of crisis. This paper offers an evaluation along two criteria: the level of communication between the government, the parliamentary majority and the opposition parliamentary groups at the beginning of the crisis, and the differentiation of control instruments according to the frequency of their use in non-crisis periods. Following this approach, the control performance of the German Bundestag can be evaluated as somewhat better than that of the French National Assembly.

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Interpreting Covid-19 in the UK's Parliament through an Interpretive Approach to Parliamentary Studies

This article contributes to debates about how Covid-19 became a dilemma of procedure inside the UK Parliament. Specifically, the article attempts to give an answer to the puzzle of why in-person proceedings and traditional approaches to representation were more important than adopting new and different ways to support representatives through, digital forms of participation. In order to answer this question, the article outlines and develops a theoretical argument, namely an interpretive approach to political science, and identifies a conceptual framework of beliefs, traditions and dilemmas. The article's main focus is to develop this theory and apply it, in particular the concept of dilemma, in order to understand Covid-19 in Parliament. The article argues that the clash of beliefs that resulted from Covid-19 was ultimately won over through conservative webs of belief that relied on embedded and historical parliamentary practices and the power relations of MPs. This article therefore offers a conceptual contribution, specifically the importance of ideas and dilemmas to understanding politics, and an empirical contribution, by examining the case study of Covid-19 in the UK.

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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Interaction Between Government and Parliamentary Opposition in the Czech Republic

The COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on parliamentary activities have recently become a trending topic. The pandemic presented both challenges and opportunities for governments and parliaments. During times of crisis, government-parliament and government-opposition relations can result in contrasting expectations and outcomes with regard to democratic norms. While consensus on crisis measures between governments and opposition parties can increase public trust and legitimacy, criticism by the opposition is essential as a catalyst for fuelling public discourse. During a crisis, government-opposition relations can range from consensus-seeking to strictly adversarial. The paper1 aims to empirically analyse the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on relations between the government coalition of the Czech Republic and its polarised parliamentary opposition. Parliamentary elections coincided with the pandemic, and the minority government was replaced by a surplus majority coalition formed by the opposition parties from the previous legislature. The paper will examine whether the opposition adopted a differentiated strategy in its discussions regarding pandemic-related legislative proposals and to what extent it was able to act unanimously despite its polarization.

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Sunset Legislation in Israel during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article presents an empirical and normative study of the widespread use of "sunset legislation", also known as temporary legislation, as a tool for dealing with COVID-19 in Israel. First, the article presents the sunset legislation's dramatic increase in Israel and traces the purposes and rationales that led legislators to use it. Second, the article evaluates sunset legislation vis-à-vis emergency regulations as the major alternatives for adopting temporary and urgent legal measures. It further addresses the difficulties and failures that have arisen or may arise from the widespread use of sunset legislation in times of crisis like COVID-19. Lastly, while recognizing that sunset legislation is 'the lesser evil' in times of crisis, a number of normative proposals are presented, so to improve the use of sunset legislation during pandemics and crises and to overcome the difficulties in using it.

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What Factors Drive Legislators' Response to Crises? Evaluating Actions and Behaviour under a Violent Protest Climate in Nigeria

What are the factors that drive how legislative actors respond and manage protests during social movements? Protests are taken as a feature of democratic expression. However, when they escalate into extreme violence, threatening lives and property, they also impact on how legislators as key governance actors channel the direction of their choices. Among many theoretical explanations, we single out the rational choice theory (RCT) as an analytical framework to assess Nigeria's 2020 #EndSARS protests. This is because of the RCT's explanatory focus on how macro-societal, meso-institutional and micro-individual level factors shape actors' preferences, limiting decision making options. During #EndSARS, legislators and legislative symbols were targeted by peaceful and violent protesters alike, and we draw on this to analyse the extent to which the RCT provides explanations for legislative behaviour and the rationality of legislative choices on the one hand, and how the actions demonstrate legislative preferences in responses to protesters, on the other hand. Drawing on secondary data sources complemented with interviews with legislators, we argue instead that the explanations to variations and similarities in the behaviour of legislators during violent protests are largely domiciled at an adjusted meso-level of action where new stakeholders, interests and complex decision-making problems. This, in turn, limits alternatives, patronage and the wider engagement that should inform legislative interventions. To navigate this, legislators adopt a collective than individualised approach to engaging with protest stakeholders.

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Progress Disrupted: Legislative Activity in Fiji during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper analyses the legislative activity conducted by the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021. Exemplified by the characteristics of Pacific Island Countries, like small populations, remoteness, infrastructure challenges, cultural norms, and a susceptibility to natural disasters, the Parliament of Fiji has faced specific challenges to its administration and legislative activities. The paper describes the impact of the crisis on parliamentary operations like parliamentary sessions and committee meetings, resulting in an expedited rollout and usage of digital tools for online participation and communication. Moreover, it highlights the decreased influence of parliament on policymaking throughout the crisis, diminished executive oversight, and reduced public engagement. Although no state of emergency was declared in Fiji to deal with the crisis, the declaration of a natural disaster during the early stage of the pandemic allowed the government to impose several restrictive measures with little parliament debate and scrutiny. Subsequent law-making in non-pandemic-related policy areas occurred in an expedited fashion, resulting in a reduced consultation and deliberation. Similarly, the frequency and intensity of oversight instruments by parliament declined. With debate of pandemic measures and assistance mainly relegated to the annual budget discussion, no specific parliamentary investigating committee was set up to scrutinize the national response to COVID-19. Although an improvement of public outreach by parliament could be witnessed in the use of multiple new communication channels, like live streaming of sessions and committee meetings, the personal interaction of members with their constituents declined and the frequency of public consultations suffered a setback. Almost two years since the onset of the pandemic, standing committees have returned to in-person meetings and conducting public consultations. It is hoped that with an end of the COVID-19 crisis in sight, the negative trends will be reversed and that the Parliament of Fiji will resume strengthening its core functions with reimagined opportunities for its democratic role.

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Conclusion: Project of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy on the Role of Legislatures in Times of Crises (Pandemic)

The collection of articles in this volume addresses the role of legislatures in times of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This volume publishes the results of the project of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. It offers a unique collection of cases that addresses the changes the Pandemic brought to the functioning of legislatures around the World and the implications of these changes for the overall stability of political systems in different countries. The articles in this volume demonstrate that the pandemic provided a major challenge for legislatures performing their major legislative functions, such as representation, legitimization, and policy making. The articles explore some of the factors and explain changes in legislative strength, the role of new technologies that allowed legislatures to function in the presence of a pandemic, and changes in the ways that legislators used to work with constituencies and conduct their daily business. Finally, legislatures made changes to the tools that they use in the legislative process and used different types of legislative acts, such as sunset legislation, to conduct their operations. This volume offers an opportunity for productive follow-up research with a larger number and a diversity of cases.

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Pandemic Legislation in a Decentralized Legislature: The Case of Taiwan

Since COVID-19 began to sweep the world at the end of 2019, the pandemic's impact on legislative politics has attracted considerable attention from scholars. Some argue that the pandemic has given rise to executive aggrandizement, while others note that this possible aggrandizement has brought about more oversight and activity on the part of legislatures. How the decentralized legislature of Taiwan has responded to the pandemic is a matter of particular interest. This article examines the interaction between the executive and legislative branches in Taiwan's pandemic legislation. The executive branch proposed seven bills in response to the pandemic and all were passed swiftly, though some received minor modifications due to the persistence of the legislature. More importantly, bills from the legislature passed only when the executive branch had a bill in the same legislation. This shows that the necessity of a quick response to the pandemic may have enhanced the influence of the executive on legislation. The legislature did not play a role of a rubber stamp, however. Legislators both modified the executive's proposals and took advantage of these opportunities to pass their own bills.

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Legislative Oversight and Democratic Satisfaction at a Time of Crisis in Taiwan

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a new challenge for governance, as urgent and large-scale measures are implemented by the government that may require greater legislative oversight. This study aims to evaluate public perceptions of legislative oversight in relation to the pandemic, and to explore the impact of such oversight on satisfaction with democracy. The research reveals that trust in government, economic evaluation, and partisanship are key factors that drive demand for legislative oversight. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that satisfaction with democracy is linked to evaluations of government performance, trust in government, economic evaluation, and legislative oversight. These findings have significant implications, as they underscore the importance of government performance and legislative oversight in supporting democracy during times of crisis. Additionally, the study confirms the influence of trust in government and economic evaluation on both legislative oversight and satisfaction with democracy, highlighting the need for further research on issues of accountability.