Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · 3h

🇨🇦 Starting from 2017, Canada’s House of Commons tested a new way of questioning the Prime Minister. Operating alongside the traditional Question Period, it also offered an opportunity to compare two questioning models in action.

I explore this reform episode in a blog drawing on a new article 👇🏻

UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 5h

ON THE BLOG: Prime Minister's Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons: Lessons in parliamentary reform

@ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social explains how Canada's experiment with a Prime Minister's Question Period procedure between 2017 and 2025 worked and how it differed from the traditional model.

Prime Minister's Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons: Lessons in parliamentary reform

Between 2017 and 2025, the Canadian House of Commons operated a Prime Minister’s Question Period procedure, introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a new published article summarised here, Ruxandra Serban explores how this procedure worked, and how it differed from the traditional Question Period model.

constitution-unit.com

2

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Ruth Fox @ruthfox.bsky.social · 11d

1/ Whatever you think of digital ID, the process matters.
And in 2025, this is still how we make big public policy. 👇

8 82 150

Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · Aug 29

(Watch this space for a more detailed analysis of the 🇨🇦 PM’s Question Period coming out soon!)

2

Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · Aug 29

It was great to talk about all things PMQs with @ruthfox.bsky.social and @darcyxtip.bsky.social on @hansardsociety.bsky.social Parliament Matters!

We discuss why France and Canada have experimented with PMQs, and why it may be time to retire the ‘engagements’ question.

youtu.be/OtpApR3fNQE?...

Prime Minister's Questions: Westminster's weekly gladiatorial combat

YouTube video by Hansard Society

youtu.be

1 6 10

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · Aug 12

Want a good starting point for learning good principles of Dataviz?

I'd highly recommend @andrew.heiss.phd course--Data Visualization with R.

Reading materials, slides, lecture videos, examples, code, etc. are all posted for free on his website.

1 11 47

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · Aug 8

Couldn't even finish this cos I thought I would turn myself inside out like a pretzel with cringe. The stupid, it burns! www.theguardian.com/education/20...

International student levy could cost English universities £600m a year

The proposed 6% surcharge has prompted warnings from vice-chancellors over its impact on budgets and global competitiveness

www.theguardian.com

5 14 44

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Radical Centrist @procedurepols.bsky.social · Jul 30

#NZPol www.rnz.co.nz/news/thehous...

Speaker nods towards large changes to Parliament's Question Time

Parliament's Speaker is considering a major rewrite of the rules for Question Time to prevent "an unequal competition".

www.rnz.co.nz

1 3

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

PSA Parliaments @psa-parliaments.bsky.social · Jul 28

🎉 PSA Parliaments Annual Conference on 28 Nov @york.ac.uk 🎉

📣 Call for Papers is now live! Submit your abstract here: bit.ly/4o879gP

✏️Our ECR methods workshop will also take place on 27 Nov! Apply here: bit.ly/3J4uQXk

💻 Check out our website for more details: psaparliaments.org/annual-confe...

3 5

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Cas Ⓜ️udde @casmudde.bsky.social · Jul 28

This is the kind of article APSR used to be famous for. The ones that make your brain explode, that challenge you, confuse you, test your patience, and make you smarter by making you realize your limitations. Well done Erica Simmons and @nickrushsmith.bsky.social‬ 👏

5 19 110

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · Jul 23

We live in an era of democratic backsliding. But the terminology of "backsliding" isn't up to the task of making sense of the deep crisis of liberal democracy around the world. I've just finished a working paper that lays out what I think is going on.

tl;dr it's about the state and society

🧵

State, Society, and the Politics of Democratic Backsliding

Recent scholarship on democratic backsliding has focused on measuring its global prevalence and identifying the causal processes and mechanisms that produce or

papers.ssrn.com

7 52 210

Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · Jul 18

Some reflections on this from a comparative perspective:

constitution-unit.com/2023/09/06/i...

Is confrontational questioning bad for parliaments and democratic politics?

Parliamentary procedures such as Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK or Question Time in Australia are often criticised for their contentious style of debate. Ruxandra Serban compares questioning …

constitution-unit.com

1 2

Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · Jul 18

Changing adversarial behaviour at PMQs is a collective action problem. MPs and parties criticise it, but continue to engage in it because confrontation draws attention to PMQs and is the way it has worked for a long time. Meaningful change would require all parties agreeing to stop engaging in this.

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · Jul 17

This, by @alanrenwick.bsky.social, is spot on about the dire impact of Prime Minister's Questions - the flagship event of the parliamentary week.
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

1 6 10

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Grace Cooper @gracecooper1.bsky.social · Jul 17

I’m really pleased that the @psa-parliaments.bsky.social conference will be at @uoypolitics.bsky.social this November!

If you work in the field of parliaments or legislative studies please consider applying

More details on the website: psaparliaments.org/annual-confe...

Annual Conference – PSA Parliaments

psaparliaments.org

1 4 5

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Ralph Scott @ralphscott.bsky.social · Jul 16

I've been working on something on this and here's a sneak peek of recent trends in Politics job adverts on jobs.ac.uk

Here's a scatterplot and (GAM) trendline showing that the number of advertised politics jobs has pretty much halved since 2021.

A scatterplot and (GAM) trendline showing that the number of advertised politics jobs has more or less halved since 2021

4 21 48

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Dr Adam Evans @a-b-evans.bsky.social · Jul 10

After debate this amendment was not pushed to a division, the Bill will return (after 3rd Reading) with 3 principal amendments:
1) phasing hereditaries out by abolishing by-elections
2) essentially banning unsalaried lords ministers
3) allowing creation of life peers without a seat in parliament

UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · Jul 9

The House of Lords is now debating the amendment from Lord (Terry) Burns, which would cap the size of the Lords at 650 members and thereby limit prime ministerial appointments.

Read the amendment 👉 bills.parliament.uk/bills/3755/s....

And use our thread to get up to speed 👇

UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · Jul 9

Today the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill is set to have its second day of report stage in the Lords.

We will mainly be looking out for amendment 23, from Crossbencher Lord (Terry) Burns. This would cap the chamber's size at 650 and limit prime ministerial appointments.

A thread 👇

2 2

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · Jul 9

Today the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill is set to have its second day of report stage in the Lords.

We will mainly be looking out for amendment 23, from Crossbencher Lord (Terry) Burns. This would cap the chamber's size at 650 and limit prime ministerial appointments.

A thread 👇

13 54 150

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · Jul 6

Me, on a podcast, talking about backbench rebellions. What else do you want?

pod.link/oppositionca...

OppositionCast

Discussion of political opposition with leading academics, politicians and commentators, presented by Dr Nigel Fletcher of the Centre for Opposition Studies.

pod.link

1 6 9

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · Jul 3

Brilliant scoop from the always excellent @sophiealichurch.bsky.social at @politicshome.bsky.social: The QEII Centre *finally* agreed as the decant location for the Lords during Restoration and Renewal www.politicshome.com/news/article... #WestminsterRR

House of Lords To Move To QEII Centre While Parliament Restored

The House of Lords is set to move to the QEII Centre while Parliament is restored, no matter which option for the estate’s restoration is eventuall...

www.politicshome.com

3 6 7

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Ralph Scott @ralphscott.bsky.social · Jul 3

If anyone has something like this for the UK I'd be very intrigued...

Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · Jul 2

APSA eJobs year-to-year comparison #polisky:

June 2024: 41 positions (20 assistant TT positions)

June 2025: 29 positions (12 assistant TT positions)

2 1 2

Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · Jul 3

(Of course ‘to what extent does AI act like a human interviewee?’ is a great research question worth exploring. Some excellent literature out there on this. But that’s not what is happening here)

Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · Jul 3

If true, this feels like a very unfortunate continuation of the “AI will make qualitative research scalable” trend, which misunderstands the core premises and aims of qualitative research.

Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · Jul 3

Morgan McSweeney (UK Labour's Dominic Cummings knock-off) is reportedly experimenting with 'synthetic voters' – "essentially fake focus groups of AI voters who can tell ministers more quickly and cheaply what the public thinks of policies" www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-...

#govtech #govcomms

McSweeney is exercised by the fact that the civil service has 7,000 communications officers, 4,500 of whom work for arm's-length bodies and quangos and frequently attack what the government is trying to do. Like Dominic Cummings, he is enthused by the possibilities of technology to speed change, such as AI in the NHS or gamers being hired by the Ministry of Defence to fly drones. He is now experimenting with 'synthetic voters' – essentially fake focus groups of AI voters who can tell ministers more quickly and cheaply what the public thinks of policies. In the last week he has been reading The Technological Republic by Alexander Karp, co-founder of the tech firm Palantir, which argues that the West’s technical dominance over the past century has been down to collaboration between governments and tech firms.

1 1 2

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

PSA Parliaments @psa-parliaments.bsky.social · Jul 2

What is a parliament?

This workshop aims to start a fresh conversation on this classic question in legislative studies.

⏰ You have two more days (deadline Friday 4 July) to submit a brief paper proposal.

Sign up details below ⬇️

Stephen Holden Bates @stephenholdenbates.bsky.social · Jun 30

📢📢📢 CfP: What is a Parliament?

***Hurry! Deadline is this Friday!***

Interdisciplinary workshop on 19th September 2025 in London.

Full details below.

Kindly sponsored by Birkbeck, the University of Birmingham and
@psa-parliaments.bsky.social

Please apply and/or spread the word!

3 2

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · Jun 30

We have new opinion polling on House of Lords reform!

There is overwhelming public support to go beyond the government's current plans to remove hereditary peers (due to be debated in the Lords on Wednesday), including to limit prime ministerial appointments and cap the chamber's size.

A thread 👇

14 110 240

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Stephen Holden Bates @stephenholdenbates.bsky.social · Jun 30

📢📢📢 CfP: What is a Parliament?

***Hurry! Deadline is this Friday!***

Interdisciplinary workshop on 19th September 2025 in London.

Full details below.

Kindly sponsored by Birkbeck, the University of Birmingham and
@psa-parliaments.bsky.social

Please apply and/or spread the word!

4 13 10

Reposted by Ruxandra Serban

Sherrill Stroschein @sherrillstroschein.bsky.social · Jun 28

Budapest Pride! Sent from a friend on site. ❤️

Large numbers gathered for Pride in Budapest

38 580 2.4K