AbstractThis first comprehensive area study is not only geared towards the needs of academics, libraries, students, school teachers and the general public, it also satisfies the expectations of two quite different clienteles of legislative researchers. As such it serves not only as a reference compendium, but also gives in part I an exposition of the main tenets of contemporary "institutional theory" in legislative studies. It then proceeds in parts II to IV to map institutional structures and procedural rules cross-nationally. Here the focus will be on devices that, on the one hand, favour majoritarian decision making and, on the other, give protection to the rights of minority parties and individual deputies, both at the government-opposition and at the cross-party level. Both parliamentary practitioners and political theorists alike will find the reading rewarding for two reasons. Firstly, all descriptions study not just a few well-known cases but document the pattern of variation across all eighteen countries of Western Europe. Secondly, these descriptive cross-national accounts serve as the means to a more ambitious purpose in various chapters, particularly in part V. Assuming that - contrary to the conventional wisdom but in keeping with recent theorizing - parliamentary procedures may indeed affect political outcomes, some thought-provoking generalisations about possible correlations between parliamentary structures and the average number and type of bills passed per country are empirically checked in aggregate analysis across countries. Table of Contents Introduction Acknowledgements Part I: Comparing Parliaments: Key Concepts and Core Questions 1 Herbert Döring 2 Kaare Strøm 3 George Tsebelis Part II: Government and Parliament: Modes of Mutual Control 4 Lieven De Winter 5 Rudy Andeweg and Lia Nijzink 6 Matti Wiberg 7 Herbert Döring Part III: Chamber Structures: Collective Actors and Arbiters 8 Ingvar Mattson and Kaare Strøm 9 Erik Damgaard 10 Marcelo Jenny and Wolfgang Müller 11 George Tsebelis and Bjørn Erik Rasch 12 Mark Williams Part IV: Attaining Legislation: Demands, Rules and Veto Players 13 Ulrike Liebert 14 Ingvar Mattson 15 Bjørn Erik Rasch 16 Thomas Saalfeld 17 Nicos Alivizatos Part V: Parliamentary Structures and Legislative Output 18 Georgios Trantas 19 Herbert Döring, Evi Scholz and Georgios Trantas 20 Herbert Döring Conclusions: Links Between the Chapters: Patterns and Perspectives |