Introducing a special issue on the parliaments of settlers: David Thackeray, Amanda Behm, ‘Settler Colonialism and Parliamentary Democracy – Histories and Legacies’, Parliamentary History, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

Introducing a special issue on the parliaments of settlers: David Thackeray, Amanda Behm, ‘Settler Colonialism and Parliamentary Democracy – Histories and Legacies’, Parliamentary History, 2025

04Mar25

Abstract: In this introduction we make the case for a new understanding of the relationship between settler colonialism and the development of democratic governance. The concurrence of franchise reform in Europe with the establishment of parliaments in the settler colonies during the mid 19th century is usually seen as consolidating an exclusionary concept of citizenship rooted in the values of whiteness, manliness, and respectability, undermining existing forms of political assertion by marginalised peoples.While still emphasising the fundamental inequalities of power which settler-led governments fostered, the articles in this special issue consider how the advent of settler democracy and the variety of constitutional experiments initiated in the colonies complicated understandings of what parliamentarism meant. Far from there being a narrowing of concepts of democratic norms and practices in the second half of the 19th century,these concepts became increasingly multivocal and disparate as different interest groups sought to assert their right to participate in parliamentary democracy. Understanding the historical challenges to settler democracy, as well as its legacies, is important when considering the ongoing dilemmas which parliaments face in making political decision-making more inclusive for all communities.

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