This book explains how parties and their members of parliament structure parliamentary debate, providing novel insights into intra-party politics and representation.

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).

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.