Historical political economy of parliaments

There is a long and rich tradition of using history to shed light on modern politics, and the comparative study of parliaments was moved drastically forward by looking to the past. Political economy as a field is also well-established, and originated in addressing the relationship between politics and economic outcomes (Persson and Tabellini 2000); however, this term is increasingly being used to describe a broader class of research. It can also be characterized as a methodological approach – specifically, the use of formal, statistical and economic methods to study political and economic institutions, as well as the behavior resulting from those constraints (Alt and Shepsle 1990, Drazen 2000). Historical political economy extends this methodological approach by looking back in time. It can be characterized by two dimensions: the grounding of theoretical concepts and empirical claims in an accurate historical context, and seeking causality in the use of observational data or theoretical predictions from the formal study of historical institutions or behavior (Diamond and Robinson 2011, Sovey and Green 2011, Dunning 2012, Kocher and Monteiro 2016). Naturally, this requires a deep knowledge of the countries and time periods under investigation, as well as both quantitative and qualitative primary source archival research. As a result, this approach also draws its tools from across the disciplines in the social sciences; namely history, sociology, quantitative methods, and economics, as well as political science.