Research Methods in Critical Security Studies, 2nd Edition

26 Legislative practices

Andrew W. Neal

DOI: 10.4324/9781003108016-30

Introduction

This chapter reflects on the methods I used for research on security politics as practised by professional politicians, specifically in legislatures. It considers research design choices and their implications in the context of prevailing theoretical assumptions about security. Legislatures, as institutions characterised by power relationships, historical conventions and rules, favour a ‘structuralist’ approach in order to do justice to their political sociology. But legislatures, as sites that produce copious speech and text, are also ripe for forms of discourse analysis. By negotiating between these approaches in a historical study covering a 40-year period, ...