Elsa Piersig

Elsa’s research into the confidence relationship between parliaments and executives spans Canadian and comparative research into parliaments, constitutions, coalition government, and the role of the Crown and presidents in parliamentary systems. Parliamentary democracy is based on a chain of democratic delegation and accountability connecting citizens to parliament, parliament to cabinet, and cabinet and the bureaucracy. At the heart of the chain is the confidence relationship: parliament delegates democratic legitimacy from the electorate to cabinet and holds cabinet accountable as needed via confidence tests. However, populists and democratic reformers increasingly demand a more direct link between citizens and government, which challenges the very nature of parliamentary democracy. Elsa’s past research examines the constitutional and parliamentary grounding of the confidence relationship across 28 European and Western parliamentary democracies. Her current research investigates populist and electoral pressures on the chain of democratic delegation and accountability and their impact on how we understand parliamentary democracy.

Piersig, Elsa. 2016. “Reconsidering Constructive Non-Confidence for Canada: Experiences from Six European Countries.” Canadian Parliamentary Review Vol. 39 (3): 5-15.