Legislative debates make democracy and representation work. Political actors engage in legislative debates to make their voice heard to voters. Parties use debates to shore up their brand.

This book makes the most comprehensive study of legislative debates thus far, looking at the politics of legislative debates in 33 liberal democracies in Europe, North America and Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The book begins with theoretical chapters focused on the key concepts in the study of legislative debates. Michael Laver, Slapin and Proksch, and Taylor examine the politics of legislative debates in parliamentary and presidential democracies. Subsequently, Goplerud makes a critical review of the methodological challenges in the study of legislative debates. Schwalbach and Rauh further discuss the difficulties in the comparative empirical study of debates. Country-chapters offer a wealth of original material organized around structured sections. Each chapter begins with a details discussion of the institutional design, focusing on the electoral system, legislative organization, and party parties, to which a section on the formal and informal rules of legislative debates ensues. Next, each country chapter focuses on analyzing the determinants of floor access, with a particular emphasis on the role of gender, seniority, legislative party positions, among others. In the concluding chapter, the editors explore comparative patterns and point out to multiple research avenues opened by this edited volume.

The Oxford Politics of Institutions series is designed to provide in-depth coverage of research on a specific political institution. Each volume includes a mix of theoretical contributions, state-of-the-art research review chapters, comparative empirical chapters, country case study chapters, and chapters aimed at practitioners. Typically, the majority of chapters in each volume comprises of country studies written by country experts. Volumes in the series are aimed at political scientists, students in political science programmes, social scientists more generally, and policy practitioners.



Table of Contents



1:The Politics of Legislative Debates: An Introduction, Hanna Bäck, Marc Debus, and Jorge M. Fernandes

2:Analyzing the politics of legislative debate, Michael Laver

3:Theories and Empirical Applications of Legislative Debate, Jonathan Slapin and Sven-Oliver Proksch

4:Legislative Speech in Presidential Systems, Andrew J. Taylor

5:Methods for Analyzing Parliamentary Debates, Max Goplerud

6:Collecting large-scale comparative text data on legislative debates, Jan Schwalbach and Christian Rauh

7:Legislative Debate in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, Alejandro Ecker and Martin Soto Payva

8:Legislative Debates in the Australian House of Representatives, Keith Dowding, Patrick Leslie, and Marija Taflaga

9:Legislative Debates in the Austrian Nationalrat, Marcelo Jenny and Wolfgang C. Müller

10:Legislative Debates in the Brazilian Câmara dos Deputados, Fabiano Santos, Fernando Guarnieri, and Nara Salles

11:Legislative Debates in the Canadian House of Commons, Christopher Cochrane, Jean-François Godbout, and Jason Vandenbeukel

12:Legislative Debates in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Alemán, Juan Pablo Micozzi, and Iñaki Sagarzazu

13:Legislative Debates in the Danish Folketing, David M. Willumsen

14:Legislative Debates in the Ecuadorian Congress, Analía Gómez Vidal and Sebastián Vallejo Vera

15:Legislative Debates in the Estonian Riigikogu, Allan Sikk and Priit Vinkel

16:Legislative Debates in the European Parliament, Miriam Sorace

17:Legislative Debates in the Finnish Eduskunta, Corentin Poyet and Tapio Raunio

18:Legislative Debates in the French Assemblée Nationale, Lennard Alke, Sylvain Brouard, and Olivier Rozenberg

19:Legislative Debates in the German Bundestag, Jochen Müller, Christian Stecker, and Andreas Blätte

20:Legislative Debates in the Parliament of Ghana, Edalina Rodrigues Sanches and António Luís Dias

21:Legislative Debates in the Greek Parliament, Yani Kartalis and Marina Costa Lobo

22:Legislative Debates in the Icelandic Alþingi, Agnar Freyr Helgason, Indriði H. Indriðason, and Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson

23:Legislative Debates in the Irish Dáil, Alexander Herzog, Slava Jankin Mikhaylov, and Liam Weeks

24:Legislative Debates in the Israeli Knesset, Or Tuttnauer and Chen Friedberg

25:Legislative Debates in the Italian Camera dei Deputati, Daniela Giannetti and Andrea Pedrazzani

26:Legislative Debates in the Japanese National Diet, Daniel M. Smith

27:Legislative Debate in the Malawi Parliament, Nikolaos Frantzeskakis, Michael Wahman , and T. Murat Yildirim

28:Legislative Debates in Mexico's Cámara de Diputados, Eric Magar

29:Legislative Debates in the Dutch Tweede, Simon Otjes and Tom Louwerse

30:Legislative Debates in the New Zealand House of Representatives, Moritz Osnabrügge

31:Legislative Debates in the Norwegian Stortinget, Martin G. Søyland and Bjørn Høyland

32:Legislative Debates in the Polish Sejm, Kamil Marcinkiewicz and Michael Jankowski

33:Legislative Debates in the Portuguese Assembleia da República, Jorge M. Fernandes and Miguel Won

34:Legislative Debates in the Spanish Congreso de los Diputados, Joan-Josep Vallbé and Marc Sanjaume

35:Legislative Debates in the Swedish Riksdag, Markus Baumann, Hanna Bäck, and Royce Carroll

36:The Politics of Legislative Debate in Switzerland, Elena Frech, Niels Goet, and Simon Hug

37:Legislative Debates in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, T. Murat Yildirim

38:Legislative Debates in the British House of Commons, Jack Blumenau and Roberta Damiani

39:Legislative Debates in the US Congress, David Gelman and Max Goplerud

40:Unpacking comparative patterns in legislative debates, Hanna Bäck, Marc Debus, and Jorge M. Fernandes