Parliamentary control
My new research project is titled:"Parliamentary control: How to move beyond partisan behavior?" and is funded by Carlsbergfonden:
The project´s empirical focus in on the parliaments in the Nordic countries, and focuses on variation in control institutions and procedures and effects on MPs behavior in control activity.
The project builds on the experiences from my Ph.d. project.
My Ph.d dissertation from November 2018: “MP Firefighting: When do MPs hold government accountable?” addresses the central accountability concern about how to control executive power. Even though the voters have an important say in this, they have no formal control options between elections. Here, parliaments have a say, especially in parliamentary systems where parliament delegates power to government, not the voter. Government answers to parliament. However, in parliament, MPs face expectations from different roles, the strongest being the role as “partisans”. The dissertation enhances our knowledge about MPs and parliamentary control by investigating under which conditions MPs engage in control activity. The dissertation focuses on Fire Alarm control activity from decentral parliamentary control institution and argues that Fire Alarms call for MP Firefighting in parliament.
More information about my dissertation: https://politica.dk/politicas-phd-serie/hallbera-west/
Arctic politics
Another research area is Arctic politics, where I focus on the Arctic Council, but also ways for national democratic elected representatives to oversee the development.
In 2019 I received a researcher travel grant for Arctic Circle, from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, DK.
Paper: West, Hallbera: “Ways for MPs to oversee Arctic foreign policy - the case of the Faroe Islands”
Democracy and citizenship
I have previously worked on and published an article about democratic culture and citizenship related to the Faroe Islands.
Research presentation
"Parliamentary control: How to move beyond partisan behavior?", DPSA online seminar October 2020, Department of Political Science, Aarhus, October 2020.
"The Faroe Islands and the Arctic", Gateway to the Arctic VII, Faroe Islands, February 2020
“How to control Arctic politics: political oversight in the case of the Faroe Islands”, Danish Political Science Association, Annual Meeting, October 24-25, 2019.
“How to control Arctic politics: political oversight in the case of the Faroe Islands”, Arctic Circle, October 12, 2019.
“Political Inheritance”, The Faroese Research Council, Annual research day, September 20, 2019.
“MP Firefighting - When do MPs Hold Government Accountable”, MPSA – Midwest Political Science Association, Conference, Chicago, USA, April 2018.
”Control in parliament – a question of partisan incentives”, The Faroese Academy of Sciences, Conference, Nordic House, Faroe Islands, November 2017.
“Democracy – also a question of accountability”, conference: Nordic Youth; Democracy and Participation, Nordic Council of Ministers, Faroe Islands, October 1, 2015.
2016 – Danish Political Science Association, Annual meeting, Vejle, October.
Parliamentary control
My new research project is titled:"Parliamentary control: How to move beyond partisan behavior?" and is funded by Carlsbergfonden:
Autonomous areas
Comparative study of the Faroe Islands, Aland Islands and Greenland
Host for international research collaboration workshop February 25-27, 2020
Host for the workshop „Gateway to the Arctic VII - Leaving the beaten path - how can sustainable development be reconciled with environmental protection and climate change? “ at the University of the Faroe Islands February 25-27, 2020. The event was jointly organised by the AWI Climate Office, the Research Initiative for Regional Climate Change REKLIM, the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) and the University of Faroe Islands. From REKLIM / AWI: Dr Klaus Grosfeld and Dr Renate Treffeisen and from UVSQ Prof Jan Borm.
https://www.gransking.fo/en/resources/news/workshop-on-arctic-issues-strengthened-cross-disciplinary-network/
Textbook material
Articles
Interviewed for articles:
Political analyst in the media (selected):
Public lectures (selected):