Day of Parliamentary Research 2024

How do parliaments strengthen and/or undermine democratic resilience? What do plenary debates tell us about power relations and democratic culture? How can new approaches help to understand and support (pre-)parliamentary decision-making processes? How do members of parliament navigate between various kinds of pressure? What is parliamentary performance and how can we look at it?

These and other questions were discussed by researchers from various disciplines, countries and institutions at the Day of Parliamentary Research 2024. The conference was organized by the Legal, Legislative & Research Services (RLW) of the Parliamentary Administration. The programme contained a keynote lecture by anthropologist Emma Crewe, panel discussions and poster presentations. Another highlight was the presentation of last year's "Research Year in Parliament”-research project as well as the announcement of the newly selected project. In the concluding panel discussion a diverse panel reflected on different perspectives on possible connections between performance and parliaments.

The latest detailed information can be found at Research | Parliament Austria (in English) or Parlamentsforschung (in German).

Wolfgang Sobotka
President of the National Council

Emma Crewe
SOAS University of London

Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik
University of Vienna

Emma Crewe
SOAS University of London

Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik
University of Vienna

Moderation:
Christoph Konrath
Parliamentary Administration

Discussant:
Sven T. Siefken
Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences, Berlin

Presentations:

"Wartime parliament in operation: Lessons learned from Ukrainian democracy"
Stanislav Ivasyk
USAID RADA Next Generation Program, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kiev

"Parliaments’ role in strengthening democratic resilience"
Cristina Leston-Bandeira
University of Leeds

"Parliaments as an example of 'generative artificial intelligence': The new parliamentary encyclopaedia"
Giovanni Rizzoni
Italian Chamber of deputies Research Service, University of Rome

Discussant:
Katrin Praprotnik
University of Graz

Presentations:

"What parliamentary rhetoric tells us about changing democratic culture"
Karin Bischof
University for Continuing Education Krems

"Words of power. A quantitative analysis of speeches of the Austrian National Council and their linguistic change on a temporal, geographical and political level"
Albert Erik Gruber
University of Vienna

"Decoding discourse: Gender dynamics in German Bundestag debates (1949 - 2021)"
Teresa Hailer
Heidelberg University

"Speech and spatial dynamics in the Austrian Parliament: The influence of seating row on speaking time and sentiment of members of the National Council"
Nada Ragheb / Maria Schreiner/ Julia Leitner 
University of Innsbruck

Discussant:
Cristina Leston-Bandeira
University of Leeds

Presentations:

"Predicting tax treaty formation using machine learning: Implications for parliamentary practice"
Dmitry Erokhin
International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA)

"Narratives of election promises in Austria"
Katrin Praprotnik
University of Graz

"Cartography of the legislative process in Germany"
Sven T. Siefken
Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences, Berlin

Discussant:
Christoph Konrath
Parliamentary Administration

Presentations: 

"Political changes of position under public pressure - using the example of party donations in Austria"
Nina Bianca Dohr
Andrássy University Budapest

"Silent conflict in parliament. Investigating the role of absences in scaling MPs’ ideological positions under conditions of high party unity"
Marcelo Jenny
University of Innsbruck

"A less likely, but increasing phenomenon? Parliamentary party switching in Germany"
Danny Schindler
Institute of Parliamentary Research, Berlin

"Where do we go now? Explaining preferences for the location of capitals"
David Willumsen
University of Innsbruck

Presentation of the research project 2023:
"Reception of scientific discourses in the debate culture of the parliament"
Bianca Winkler
University of Vienna

Presentation of the newly selected project 2024
Susanne Janistyn-Novák
Deputy Secretary General of the Parliamentary Administration

Presentation:
"Do parlamentarians listen to experts or citizens?"
Josef Lolacher
University of Oxford

Lotte de Beer
Artistic director of Volksoper

Emma Crewe
SOAS University of London

Thomas Hofer
Political consultant

Moderation: 
Philipp Blom

Christoph Clar
Parliamentary Administration

The event was held in English, while the keynote lecture (including the following response and discussion), the presentation of the "Research Year in Parliament” and the concluding panel discussion were simultaneously translated into German.

Following the event, all participants and guests were invited to take part in a guided tour of the Parliament Building or to exchange ideas during the reception in the Colonnaded Hall (Säulenhalle).

For photos of the event, please click here.

Please find the abstracts under the following link / PDF, 548 KB.