Parliament

This chapter focuses on the changing functions and organization of Parliament in areas that have received less attention in existing scholarship. The ‘rise of democracy’ was not the only imperative driving Parliament’s almost complete remodelling as an institution during the period under study. Broader cultural factors also played their part, as a number of innovative studies examining the environment of Parliament from the perspective of architectural space, historic identity, parliamentary debate, scientific inquiry, and the concept of time (to name but a few) have sought to indicate. Gaps still remain, however, particularly in terms of work on the House of Lords and the development of Parliament’s legislative and scrutiny functions. Drawing on some of these historical approaches, and proposing a few new ones, this chapter explores the changing power structures and operation of Parliament in two key areas: the business of law-making and the relationship between its two houses.