Resumen de Models of parliamentary speakership in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: France, Italy, Portugal and Spain

Mikel Urquijo Goitia

• This article analyzes the speakership in the lower parliamentary chamber in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain) during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the systems for electing and defining the functions of the speakership underwent a similar evolution in these countries. Three particular periods are examined when this evolution can be observed: the start of the liberal revolution in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; the formation of the liberal-conservative monarchies, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century; and the development of the democratic parliaments in the second half of the twentieth century. In these three periods, the manner in which the speaker is elected, the length of the mandate of the speakership, and the functions performed by the speaker are examined.