Tag Archives: Legislatures

The Westminster system of government

Lord Norton 03/03/2009 – 6:17 pm

I spoke yesterday to a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association seminar which brought together more than sixty parliamentarians and officials from a large number of Commonwealth countries.  My task was to open with a paper on the Westminster system of government.   This is actually quite a challenging exercise.  The Westminster Parliament and the Westminster system of government are not synony […]

Enhancing transparency

Lord Norton 08/11/2008 – 4:50 pm

In response to my earlier post on tackling political alienation, a couple of respondents suggested increasing the transparency of Westminster - 'losing the ivory tower effects of the Westminster village' (DW) - and informing the public more about the basic operations of Parliament (Troika21). Compared with many other parliaments, Westminster is a transparent institution.  Votes are roll-call vot […]

Learning from elsewhere

Lord Norton 19/04/2008 – 3:24 pm

Given the time I spend in Westminster, I normally utilise weekends to catch up on research and administration. Part of the time is given over to teaching on an online degree we offer - the MA in Legislative Studies Online. Part of this weekend is also given over to making arrangements for a biennial conference I organise - the Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians.  This year’ […]