Even though conflictual aspects of politics are well acknowledged (e.g. Mouffe 2005, Rancière 1998), political theory seldom concentrates on the activity of parliamentarians. Instead of aiming at a normative model, we offer a rhetorical approach that concentrates on the analysis of institutional patterns and uses of language. Our underlying idea is that parliamentary rhetoric is a very special type of political activity. The ways in which parliamentarians can operate and pursue their political agendas is defined by rules and conventions of parliaments. But the forms of conduct can be transferred to other deliberative assemblies. We provide two case examples: Union Societies in 19th-century Britain and the constitutional assembly of West Germany in 1948-49. While acknowledging the differences between parliamentary cultures and histories in which they have operated, our contribution lies in the use of original historical sources on the study of debating practices in the British and German parliamentary tradition.
