This seminar addresses major aspects of legislative politics in parliamentary democracies: (1) parliamentary constitutions and their consequences, (2) parliamentary institutions, (3) parliamentary behaviors, (3) parliamentary recruitment and elite formation, and (4) cabinet coalition bargaining. We will analyze these aspects using the German example and place our major findings in a comparative perspective (the US Congress, the French National Assembly, the UK Parliament, and East European parliaments). We will focus on aspects such as female and ethnic representation, parliamentary careers, committee assignments, and recruitment of cabinet ministers. Literature: Jose Antonio Cheibub, Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Michael Laver and Kenneth Shepsle, Making and Breaking Governments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; Kaare Strøm, Wolfgang C. Müller and Torbjörn Bergman, eds., Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003; Cotta, Maurizio, and Heinrich Best, eds. Democratic representation in Europe: diversity, change, and convergence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.