Displacement, drift, layering and conversion: The changing parliament

There is new research on how Parliament's rules change, and the researcher gets to observe that change very closely - Parlament's Clerk of the House.

For any political geek, a new PhD thesis focused on the rules of Parliament is catnip; even more so if the researcher happens to run the Parliament's secretariat.

Surely they know where the metaphorical institutional bodies are buried and which cupboard holds the spades.

David Wilson had a PhD conferred this year with a thesis titled Influences on parliamentary procedure in New Zealand 1935 ‐ 2015. His formal title is Clerk of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He manages the team of experts who make the legislative side of Parliament tick. His clerks manage the various select committees and the House itself. They are also the acknowledged experts on Parliament's rules, acting as advisors to speakers and chairs.

The thesis offers a vast array of possible topics to discuss and dissect, but this article will focus briefly on three things: the central idea of the thesis, what it highlighted about how our parliament operates, and our history of relentless change.

Listen to a radio interview with David Wilson about his thesis.

Categorising change

Most rules that govern parliaments change over time. This is true whether they are written down or are simply conventions. But they don't all change the same way, and the rules for the different aspects of Parliament seem to exhibit different kinds of change.

The framework for David Wilson's research is work by political scientists James Mahoney and Kathleen Thelen, who, Wilson says, created "a model for understanding institutional change in any kind of institution, but particularly political ones. It looks at a couple of variables; one is the discretion to interpret the rules, and the other one is the possibility of vetoing changes to rules."

"The interplay between those two things brings up four different kinds of change, so institutions can change their rules and ways of operating through Displacement, where one rule actually just replaces another one - it's written over the top of it. Layering, where additional rules are added on top of existing ones. Conversion, where the rules actually stay the same but they're interpreted in a different way; and Drift, where the rules remain the same but their effect is altered, often by situations outside of the institution."

(Note: Unless noted, the quotes in this article are from our interview, and not the research.)

A Parliament that embraces both change and rules…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details