Suchergebnisse

Some concern has been growing lately about the effects of the financial pressures to which Members find themselves subjected, but the Gov sees no problem that cannot be left to the good sense of the individual MP. The financial obligations of conscientious Members, plus the gross inadequacy of facilities provided for them, drives them to accept 1 of 2 alternatives: to unload upon the local Party what work they can , & try to do all their routine work that is left themselves, or, to look for employment outside Parliament in order to pay for the facilities they need. Some of the 1st type spend all their time in the House; the 2nd type give most of their time to their private business & some are rarely in the House. With the growth of so-called public relations (PR) & of the power of the pressure groups, the door is wide open for a new form of pol'al corruption which will not be safeguarded by the practice of 'declaring an interest.' 27 Members are employed by PR & advertising firms. How can the problem be dealt with? There are 4 possible means: (1) members can be paid an adequate salary so that extra income will not be necessary; (2) members can be provided with proper working facilities both in their constituencies & at Westminster; (3) the whole problem of Members' business interests could be investigated by an independent body; (4) the inauguration of a register of all fees received by Members for services to extra-Parliamentary bodies. It is to be hoped that it will not take a major public scandal to persuade the Gov to look at this matter of the 'Grey Zone.' IPSA.

Este artículo pone de manifiesto la contradicción existente entre un sistema de listas bloqueadas para las elecciones al Congreso de los Diputados, como el que aún rige en España, y la prohibición del mandato imperativo recogida en la Constitución. Analiza, además, la práctica parlamentaria española (casos de ejercicio libre o indisciplinado del voto parlamentario) y las propuestas de la doctrina para superar dicha contradicción, decantándose por abrir las listas electorales para permitir una relación más representativa entre la ciudadanía y los parlamentarios. ; This article highlights the contradiction between a system of blocked lists for elections to the Congress of Deputies, as we still have in Spain, and the prohibition of imperative mandate in the Constitution. It analyzes also the Spanish parliamentary practice (free or undisciplined parliamentary vote cases) and the proposals of the doctrine to overcome this contradiction, preferring open electoral lists to allow a more representative relationship between citizens and parliamentarians.

This paper examines the debate surrounding the remuneration of Members of Parliament in Germany. It analyzes grey literature, speeches and newspaper articles to shed a light on the debate. With the tool of analytical discourse analysis by Toulmin it scrutinizes the "selfdetermination should be abolished"-argument, which is very salient in the public discussion on the topic. The underlying arguments are being extracted, described and finally evaluated on their validity. Thereby, three main questions emerge: Does increasing their remuneration really increase a Member of Parliament's utility? Is there really no external control on the determination of Members' of Parliament remuneration? Does higher remuneration for Members of Parliament really increase taxes? All those three questions are answered in the negative by the author. First, the growth in utility resulting from an increase of Members of Parliament remuneration, which is overestimated by the public, can be assumed to be much lower. Second, there is external oversight on the self-determination process provided by the public. Finally, the tax increase as a result of an increase in Members of Parliament remuneration is neglectable.