To mark the 2017 French parliamentary and presidential election, this special issue of Parliamentary Affairs looks at the realignment of French politics and revival of the presidency, the demise of the Left, and how policy choices for the Front National influenced its electoral success.
Representing Diversity in Mixed Electoral Systems: The Case of New Zealand Fiona Barker, Hilde Coffé
Do Party Lists Matter? Political Party Strategies in Legislative Candidate Nominations Yüksel Alper Ecevit, Gülnur Kocapınar
Guest editor: Raymond Kuhn
Left and Centre-Left in France—Endgame or Renewal? David Hanley
In a powerful Churchill Attlee Lecture commemorating the Hansard Society's 80th anniversary, former Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a stark warning about the state of democracy. She expressed grave concerns about the waning trust in democratic institutions, particularly among young people.
To mark the Hansard Society’s 80th anniversary, we have launched the Churchill-Attlee Democracy Lecture in honour of our first members, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. The inaugural lecture was given by former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Theresa May MP. All proceeds from ticket sales go to our 80th Anniversary Appeal. Date & location: Tuesday 14 May 2024, 7:00-8:30pm Westminster £10 tickets are now available for an online recording of the event.
Following the local election results, are we now in zombie Parliament territory? With no immediate general election in sight what can be achieved in Westminster before MPs finally make their rendezvous with the voters? We talk to Professor Tim Bale about defeat, defections and the internal dynamics of the Conservative Party.
Should Parliament simply overturn the convictions of postmasters caught up in the Post Office Horizon scandal? That’s what the Government proposes to do through the Post Office (Horizon system) Offences Bill. But quashing of convictions is normally a matter for the courts. Some MPs have misgivings about setting a constitutional precedent as well as practical concerns about how the Bill will be implemented. We talk to the Chair of the Justice Select Committee, Sir Bob Neill MP.
The emerging role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in shaping political discourse is a potential game changer. It has the capacity to fabricate fake interviews and manipulate images, all of which could mislead voters and disrupt the democratic process. But could it affect the results of our elections? We talk to Chris Morris, the head of factchecking organisation, Full Fact, about the threats posed by these technologies, the potential scale of misinformation in politics, and the measures politicians and political parties need to take to counteract them.
