Parliamentary assemblies and emotions

This chapter discusses the role of emotions in Parliamentary assemblies from the perspective of the sociology of emotions. While Parliamentary studies have not given much attention to the role of emotions, an increasing number of scholars have focused on the study of Parliamentary debates, showing the relevance of emotions in politics and policymaking. Existing research has shown that emotions play a relevant role in the definition of the possible and that they can have important effects in the shaping of policymaking. This chapter also discusses the relevance of affective pressures. It shows first how affective pressures arise from social structures and feeling rules. Secondly, the attention is turned to agency, showing how political actors engage in affective strategies contributing to the emergence of feeling rules and power status relations. This chapter finalizes with a discussion of the main methodological challenges for the study of emotions in Parliamentary assemblies and proposes avenues for future research.