Anthropology of Parliaments

In this chapter, part of the Handbook of Parliamentary Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Legislatures, edited by Cyril Benoit and Olivier Rozenburg, Emma provides an overview of what anthropologists have written about parliaments in the last fifty years. Contrasting with approaches within political science, she reflects on the unique contribution that anthropology has made so far to parliamentary studies and offers a theory about how to make sense of the shapeshifting work of elected politicians.