The Politics of Legislative Debates

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.

Series editors: Shane Martin, Anthony King Chair in Comparative Government and Head of the Department of Government, University of Essex; and Sona N. Golder, Professor of Politics, Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University.

Hanna Back, Professor of Political Science, University of Lund,Marc Debus, Professor of Political Science, University of Mannheim,Jorge M. Fernandes, Assistant Research Professor, University of Lisbon

Hanna B?ck is a Professor of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden. She received her PhD from Uppsala University, and has previously held a position at University of Mannheim. Her research mainly focuses on political parties, legislators, governments, and cabinet ministers in parliamentary democracies. She has published extensively on these topics, for example in journals such as British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Political Science Research and Methods. She is the co-author of the book, Parties, Parliaments and Legislative Speechmaking (Palgrave Macmillan).


Marc Debus is Professor of Comparative Government at the University of Mannheim, Germany. He studied Political Science, Sociology, History and Methods of Empirical Social Research at the Universities of Marburg and Mannheim and received his PhD from the University of Konstanz in 2006. His research interests include political institutions, in particular in multilevel systems, and their effects on the political behavior of voters and legislators, as well as party competition, coalition politics and decision making within parliaments and governments. His publications appeared, amongst others, in the Journal of Politics, the European Journal of Political Research, Party Politics, Political Science Research and Methods, Public Choice, West European Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly.


Jorge M. Fernandes is Assistant Research Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. Jorge received his PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute, Florence. His main interests are representation, electoral systems, legislatures, political parties, and party competition. He has published extensively on these topics in inter allia, Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Party Politics. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Portuguese Politics.

1. The Politics of Legislative Debates: An Introduction, Hanna B?ck, 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. M?ller
10. Legislative Debates in the Brazilian C?mara dos Deputados, Fabiano Santos, Fernando Guarnieri, and Nara Salles
11. Legislative Debates in the Canadian House of Commons, Christopher Cochrane, Jean-Fran?ois Godbout, and Jason Vandenbeukel
12. Legislative Debates in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Alem?n, Juan Pablo Micozzi, and I?aki Sagarzazu
13. Legislative Debates in the Danish Folketing, David M. Willumsen
14. Legislative Debates in the Ecuadorian Congress, Anal?a G?mez Vidal and Sebasti?n 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 Assembl?e Nationale, Lennard Alke, Sylvain Brouard, and Olivier Rozenberg
19. Legislative Debates in the German Bundestag, Jochen M?ller, Christian Stecker, and Andreas Bl?tte
20. Legislative Debates in the Parliament of Ghana, Edalina Rodrigues Sanches and Ant?nio Lu?s Dias
21. Legislative Debates in the Greek Parliament, Yani Kartalis and Marina Costa Lobo
22. Legislative Debates in the Icelandic Al?ingi, Agnar Freyr Helgason, Indri?i H. Indri?ason, and Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson
23. Legislative Debates in the Irish D?il, 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 C?mara 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 Osnabr?gge
31. Legislative Debates in the Norwegian Stortinget, Martin G. S?yland and Bj?rn H?yland
32. Legislative Debates in the Polish Sejm, Kamil Marcinkiewicz and Michael Jankowski
33. Legislative Debates in the Portuguese Assembleia da Rep?blica, Jorge M. Fernandes and Miguel Won
34. Legislative Debates in the Spanish Congreso de los Diputados, Joan-Josep Vallb? and Marc Sanjaume
35. Legislative Debates in the Swedish Riksdag, Markus Baumann, Hanna B?ck, 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 B?ck, Marc Debus, and Jorge M. Fernandes