Hanna Bäck
Professor
Unpacking the politics of legislative debates
Author
Summary, in English
Legislative debates are a thriving field in comparative politics. They make representation work by offering legislators the opportunity to take the floor and represent their constituents. In this paper, we review the key theoretical concepts and empirical findings in a maturing field. We begin by addressing what legislative debates are and why we should study them to learn about inter- and intra-party politics. Next, we look at the contributions springing from Proksch and Slapin's ground-breaking model. In so doing, our review suggests that recent work extends the original model to include further dimensions of legislative debates. Third, we examine the role of legislative debates as mechanisms of representation, focusing on gender. Four, we examine the challenges of the comparative analysis of legislative debates. Finally, we map the road ahead by discussing four avenues of future research and some key questions that remain unanswered.
Department/s
- Department of Political Science
Publishing year
2021
Language
English
Pages
1032-1045
Publication/Series
European Journal of Political Research
Volume
60
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Wiley
Topic
- Political Science
Keywords
- electoral systems
- legislative debates
- legislatures
- political parties
- representation
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0304-4130