Rituals in Parliaments : Political, Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on Europe and the United States (New ed)

By bringing together three different academic disciplines -- anthropology, political science and history -- and covering a variety of different parliamentary assemblies, both in Europe and in the United States, this book aims to offer a fresh approach to parliamentary studies.

The authors assess the importance of ritual and symbolic communication in different parliamentary settings.

The underlying question that each practitioner and scholar addresses is: Do parliamentary rituals really matter?

Some of the contributors argue that legislative procedure is more telling of the role and reputation that a parliament has in a given society than its rituals and ceremonies.

Others stress the relevance of these ritual expressions for conveying political sense and meaning to the public.