Parliaments
SPARK focuses on seven parliaments across Europe.
​
​
In this project we study seven settings covering national, supranational and subnational levels. The cases were chosen for their diversity and potential to provide comparative insights.
The three national settings - Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom - offer different types of political systems, priorities and cultures for better understanding knowledge use and comparing different factors. At sub-national level - Bavaria, Catalonia and Scotland - we compare different types of institutions once again.
​
For example, at national level, the UK’s long-established and well-resourced parliamentary administration offers an insight into knowledge use in a different way from Spain’s comparatively new infrastructure of advisory mechanisms.
Likewise, at sub-national level, the German federal structure has existed since the state was formed following the Second World War, whereas the Scottish Parliament is a young and still maturing institution. Meanwhile, the Catalan parliament was re-convened in 1980 and developed new advisory mechanisms early in this century. In all three, the political dynamics at play and the place of the three subnational areas in their respective wider political systems may shape knowledge use in different ways.
And finally, how does knowledge use vary with a supranational parliament? The European Parliament is a unique institution, which often prides itself on interest-group involvement. How does this shape its knowledge use?
As a result, one of the added values of this project is its multi-level possibilities: understanding knowledge use across national settings, but also within national settings, and how things might travel - or not - from the subnational, to national, and to supranational level.
​
You can read more about each parliament below.
European Parliament
The European Parliament is distinctive for being a supranational institution with a political setup unlike most others. Characteristic features include the formation of crossnational parliamentary groups and extensive input of interest groups. How do such elements shape its knowledge use?
Spanish Parliament
While the Spanish parliament is seen as central to the constitutional system overall, it is perceived as a weak legislature comparatively, with a strong role for political parties. At the same time, its committees enjoy strong formal legislative and oversight powers. Unlike other parliaments chosen for SPARK, this national parliament has comparatively fewer resources and, until recently, did not have any formal advisory mechanism to facilitate flows of knowledge into the parliament.
Bavarian Parliament
There are few developed studies on Germany’s individual state parliaments. However, they often mirror the Bundestag’s overall structures, principles and wider parliamentary traditions. The Bavarian Landtag is no different in that respect. Given the many unknowns, this parliament will be especially interesting to explore.
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is an under-researched and very young legislature, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2024. It was designed to be explicitly different from Westminster, and has, for example, a different committee system designed to be a strong check on executive dominance. The institution is served by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) that brokers knowledge from a range of stakeholders and writes briefing papers.
German Parliament
The Bundestag in Germany is often perceived as a ‘working’ parliament as opposed to ‘talking’ one, in which its MPs are incentivised to become specialists in particular fields. The parliament has a well-developed committee system and in-house research services, including a separate Office for Technology Assessment. The German parliament also makes use of study commissions to bring expertise into the parliamentary arena.
.jpg)
United Kingdom Parliament
In comparative research, the Westminster Parliament has traditionally been perceived as a weak legislature with particularly weak committees. With some exceptions, we know little about how the House of Commons or House of Lords use knowledge – despite comparatively extensive tools such as through select committee evidence-gathering processes, parliamentary libraries and the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology.
Catalan Parliament
The Catalan parliament shares many characteristics of Spain's Congress of Deputies, including a strong role for parties and a somewhat similar legislative process. Yet it also possesses unique knowledge institutions, notably the Advisory Board for Science and Technology (CAPCIT), established in 2008. This parliament therefore provides important comparative insights into knowledge use as part of the wider multi-level study.
