Parliamentary sources in the comparative study of conceptual history: methodological aspects and illustrations of a research proposal

Abstract

Summary: This article proposes that historians and political theorists should exploit parliamentary sources to move from the writing of national histories to the comparative study of the conceptual history of European political cultures. Complementing the German lexicographical approach to conceptual history, the authors argue that parliamentary debates in several European countries provide more reliable sources for the past use of the language of politics. They emphasize the possibilities for the study of political history and the rhetoric of parliamentary institutions offered by the use of parliamentary debates side by side with the study of archival sources and published literature. Rhetorical studies and historical analyses of the use of key concepts emphasize speaking as a major form of political action and the value of parliamentary debates independently of the results of the final votes. Parliamentary debates in themselves, as a part of the decision-making process and with their increasing links to extra-parliamentary publicity, promoted change in political language and culture. The debates allow us to identify precisely the actual speaking situations in which the key political concepts were used. They also show how the emerging codification of parliamentary procedure was registered in the contested parliamentary vocabulary and how parliamentary debate gradually superseded the ancient examples of deliberative rhetoric. Finally, the authors address the methodological challenges involved in the use of parliamentary sources for the study of a comparative conceptual history of politics. The examples provided focus on the British Parliament and the Swedish Diet, particularly in the eighteenth century.