National Parliaments as a Global Institution Cloth: An Institutionalist View

Countries all over the world make decisions of national and international importance in a national parliament. Today, for a country to have a national parliament is a global norm, but this has only been the case for the last few hundred years. The development of this remarkable uniformity has seen national parliaments become a global institution.

National Parliaments as a Global Institution scrutinizes how the current world order comprising national legislatures evolved, how parliaments work, and how they form a global network or field for the transfer of ideas and information. It highlights the remarkably similar structures and practices of national parliaments all around the world, with even the opening words of a session replicating those of other parliaments, and the four sacred principles that define national parliaments as an institution: national sovereignty, parliamentary immunity, the national interest or common good, and the sanctity of fellow parliamentarians.

By considering national parliaments as a global institution, Pertti Alasuutari explores how legislatures symbolize, sanctify, and naturalize the nation-state as the component part of world society.

Pertti Alasuutari, Professor of Sociology, Tampere University

Pertti Alasuutari is Professor of Sociology at Tampere University. He previously served as Academy Professor, funded by the Research Council of Finland, and his previous works include Epistemic Governance, with Ali Qadir, The Synchronization of National Policies, and National Policy-Making.