Call for Papers

Presidencies of parliamentary and representative institutions (XV-XXI centuries)

An international conference, entitled Presidencies of parliamentary and representative institutions (XV-XXI centuries), will take place in the Jean Monnet House in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne (France) on 8, 9 and 10 July 2020, to address the study of the presidents/speakers of parliamentary and representative institutions. The objective is to analyse the role played at different times in our history by the presidents of the chambers, états généraux,  juntas de brazos, revolutionary assemblies, etc., as well as the role played by the presidents of the working committees of those institutions (permanent or provisional committees).

The intention is to analyse, from the end of the Middle Ages to the present day, the following themes and issues:

the criteria for the election of presidents

the duties and tasks conferred on presidents at ordinary and/or extraordinary times,

the tasks that presidents undertook in and outside the legislative field,

the control that presidents exercised over the information that reached the legislative power,

the weight that presidents held in legislative debates,

the relations of presidents with the permanent or provisional working committees set up by the cortes, assemblies or parliaments,

the tensions that presidents unleashed through exercising their tasks and duties,

the political struggles that occurred at the time of their election,

the contacts that presidents had with other powers and public or private institutions.

Another aim of the conference is to draw attention to the presidents of the working committees, taking as a starting point the fact that in some fields and historical periods working committees played a leading role in elaborating laws and designing the political, economic and social order that was being configured. Finally, one section of the conference will be dedicated to those biographical and prosopographical studies that are being undertaken on the speakers of parliamentary and representative institutions in the legislative sphere.

Organised by:

1) Grup d'estudis de les institucions i de les cultures polítiques (segles XVI-XXI) - UPF

2) Grupo de investigación Biography & Parliament (UPV/EHU)

3) International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions - ICHRPI

4) Jean Monnet House

Collaborators: 

1) University of Strathclyde

2) Istituto di Storia dell'Europa Mediterranea del CNR (ISEM-CNR)

3) Dipartimento di Scienze politiche - Università di Pisa

4) Institut d’Història Jaume Vicens Vives – Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Presentation of communications:

Those interested in participating in the international studies conference on Presidencies of parliamentary and representative institutions (XV-XXI centuries) in Paris on 8, 9 and 10 July 2020 should send an email containing an abstract of their communication, with a maximum length of 500 words, together with the title of the communication, the author’s name, and the institution to which he or she belongs, to the following address before the deadline of 15 March 2020:

[email protected]

The following languages will be used in the conference: Spanish, French, English and German.

The time allowed for reading each communication will not exceed 20 minutes.

The organising committee will acknowledge the receipt of proposals and will give notice of their acceptance prior to 19 April.

Program.