Resumen de The Speaker, Parliamentary Ceremonies and Power

Faith Armitage

• The Speaker is an important figure in the British House of Commons, yet is surprisingly neglected in the recent academic literature. To fill this gap, this paper considers the ceremonial aspect of the Speakership. Speakership ceremonies have not significantly diminished in recent decades, or indeed, centuries. Ceremonies are a type of procedure yet the literature on procedural reform in the Commons has never given specific consideration to parliamentary ceremonies. This paper extends the dominant model of procedural reform in Westminster by applying it to Speakership ceremonies. The sources of procedures are revealed as an important, but neglected, aspect of the reform debates. Consideration of ceremonies also results in a shift of attention to the problem of the party dominance of parliament, and away from the executive dominance of parliament. This is because ceremonies are regarded by some actors as an antidote to party dominance.