The Politics of Parliamentary Debate

Sven-Oliver Proksch is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, Montréal. His research focuses on comparative political institutions, party politics, legislative behavior, European politics, and political text analysis. He is the co-author of Reforming the European Union: Realizing the Impossible (2012). Jonathan B. Slapin is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International and Comparative Studies at the University of Houston. His research focuses on comparative political institutions, legislative behavior, European politics, and European integration. He is the author of Veto Power: Institutional Design in the European Union (2011).

• Introduction; Part I. Modeling Parliamentary Debate: 1. A theory of parliamentary debate; 2. Empirical implications; 3. Research design; Part II. Empirical Studies of Parliamentary Debate: 4. Debates and institutions; 5. Debate participation: Germany and the UK; 6. Dissent in parliament and the media: Germany and the UK; 7. Candidate selection and debate participation: a European perspective; 8. New Zealand: changing institutions; Conclusion.

'Political scientists have always taken parliamentary voting seriously. In this highly original book, Proksch and Slapin ask us to give equal consideration to parliamentary speech, and reward us with a host of new insights about the deep connection between electoral dynamics and intra-party politics.' Christopher Kam, University of British Columbia