A Parliament in Flux: A Cultural History of the Development of the British Legislative Process, 1945-1997.

This thesis sits at the intersection between political science and history. There is a rich
political science scholarship exploring the British legislative process and assessing
parliament's scrutiny capacity.
In particular, the legislative studies literature has produced a
parliamentary decline thesis and a wealth of research into the effectiveness of committees,
parliamentary debates and question times. What this thesis aims to do is contribute a
historical context and depth to this extensive political science research. This thesis follows
developments in legislative processes-for example, the committee systems or standing
orders-in post-war, post-imperial Britain until that transformational constitutional moment
that was devolution in 1997. The research will observe both the procedural changes and how
they have affected scrutiny capacity.
All the while, this thesis will take a broader view of how these developments have
affected not just domestic policy, but Britain's standing globally. This thesis also contributes
new insights to constitutional studies and federalism literature where it aims to focus on
issues that have faced parliament concerning the UK union.
As such, this thesis has three broad objectives:
To historicise the British legislative process and contextualise the political science
literature
To understand how the development of this legislative process has had an impact on
both domestic decision-making and the geopolitics of Britain in the world.
To offer insights, more specifically, into how the development of parliamentary
processes has influenced the way the UK is governed as a union of four nations.
Such objectives allow for a wide berth in terms of what avenues can be explored and more
limited and specific foci can be directed by the wealth of source material.