Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures

There is a growing interest in the relationship between structure and agent, and the concept of political roles has become increasingly relevant for understanding contemporary political systems. Parliamentary, legislative and representative roles are professional roles that provide a way of connecting the individual legislator to their institution that can also explain a legislator's attitude and behaviour.This book examines the link between representative roles, different institutional settings and parliamentary behaviour. It argues that we are experiencing the return of role theories in political science, as a result of the growing interest in the relationship between institutional arrangements and actors' behaviour. The authors provide a comprehensive and critical overview of current research on legislative roles, summarizing previous research and also exploring the various developing approaches to role theory.Presenting a large variety of methodological approaches, the book features empirical cases on Germany, the Netherlands, UK, France, Austria, Norway, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand and the European Parliament. It will be of strong interest to students and scholars of government, legislative studies, political parties, comparative politics, political sociology and deliberative democracy.