Studying Parliamentary Opposition in Old and New Democracies: Issues and Perspectives

There can be no real democracy without opposition. In representative democracies, the parliamentary opposition holds a special place, if not always in empirical terms, certainly when looked at from a normative perspective. Its relevance has been eclipsed by more recent paradigmatic shifts in the field of comparative politics. However, a careful revisiting of the arguments put forward suggests that the notable neglect of ‘opposition issues’ is not justified by any compelling theoretical or empirical contentions. Whereas it remains extremely difficult to develop more sophisticated theoretical propositions regarding the parliamentary opposition, the subjects' striking resistance to theory may be considered a symbol of democracy's vibrancy itself, and it is comparative research that can offer the most fascinating insights into the world of parliamentary oppositions.