The Roles and Function of Parliamentary Questions

1. Introduction: Parliamentary Questions, the Behaviour of Legislators, and the Function of Legislatures: An Introduction Shane Martin 2. Parliamentary Questions as Instruments of Substantive Representation: Visible Minorities in the UK House of Commons, 2005-10 Thomas Saalfeld 3. The Constituency as a Focus of Representation: Studying the Italian Case through the Analysis of Parliamentary Questions Federico Russo 4. People's Voice or Information Pool? The Role of, and Reasons for, Parliamentary Questions in the Swiss Parliament Stefanie Bailer 5. Parliamentary Questions in Belgium: Testing for Party Discipline Regis Dandoy 6. Constituency Influence on 'Constituency Members': The Adaptability of Roles to Electoral Realities in the Canadian Case Kelly Blidook and Matthew Kerby 7. Not Only a Battleground: Parliamentary Oral Questions Concerning Defence Policies in Four Western Democracies Olivier Rozenberg, Olivier Chopin, Catherine Hoeffler, Bastien Irondelle and Jean Joana 8. Questioning in European Parliaments Manuel Sanchez de Dios and Matti Wiberg 9. Bureaucrats in the Headlights: Question Times and Delegation to Bureaucrats Rob Salmond 10. Behavioural Consequences of Restrictions on Plenary Access: Parliamentary Questions in the Norwegian Storting Bjorn Erik Rasch 11. Conclusion: Questioning Parliamentary Questions Olivier Rozenberg and Shane Martin