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Black and white photo of Hanna Bäck. Photo.

Hanna Bäck

Professor

Black and white photo of Hanna Bäck. Photo.

Unpacking the politics of legislative debates

Author

  • Jorge M. Fernandes
  • Marc Debus
  • Hanna Bäck

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