The parliamentary style of politics has been formed over centuries nobody theorised it in
advance. This book presents a thought experiment to spell out key principles of the
parliamentary ideal type of politics. Max Weber offers the main intellectual inspiration
Westminster parliament provides the main historical reference and the author's studies on
parliamentary procedure and rhetoric provide the background for the book. Parliamentary acting
and thinking offer us the best example of politics as a contingent and controversial activity.
Using a parliamentary imagination the author constructs the ideal type in five main chapters:
dissensual modes of proceeding rhetoric of parliamentary debate parliamentary formation and
control of government parliamentarians as politicians and parliamentary time as their common
subtext. In the last two chapters the book outlines the possibilities of extending
parliamentary judgment to politics beyond parliaments proper and the chances for parliamentary
politics succeeding today.
