The parliament as a research object in German political science

Abstract

SUMMARYParliament is at the centre of the political systems of Western, liberal democracies. Yet this is not the case in the discipline of political science, especially with regard to a distinctive feature of parliaments: the parliamentary debate. This article traces this curiosity by looking at the development of Politikwissenschaft in post-war Germany in the crucial period up to the early 1970s when the field was shaped. In so doing, this article will accordingly analyse the institutional, epistemological, political and ideological aspects of this neglect.