Words and votes in the Greek Parliament, 1865–1915: A discursive-network theory of legislative order

Greece between 1865 and 1915 is typically characterised as a period of crises, clientelism, and weak institutions. But what if we've been looking in the wrong place? This paper shifts attention from executive turnover to the legislature itself, drawing on newly digitised parliamentary archives of speeches and roll-call votes.

How do legislators coordinate when party boundaries are fluid and no whips enforce discipline? This study develops a discursive-network theory of legislative order, proposing that shared language serves as the mechanism through which trust is established, coalitions are formed, and political coordination becomes possible without formal party structures. The paper combines network analysis of voting behaviour with NLP of parliamentary speech, using a scalable OCR and LLM pipeline designed for historical, non-English text.

The findings speak to foundational questions in political science: the origins of party systems, the micro-foundations of cleavage "freezing", and how legislatures function under weak institutional constraints. These questions have relevance for contexts ranging from post-colonial parliaments to contemporary party system collapses.

Meet our speaker and chair

Angelos Angelou is Assistant Professor of European Political and Economic Governance in the Department of International, European and Regional Studies at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. He is also a visiting fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics (LSE), where he obtained his PhD.

Professor Vassilis Monastiriotis is Director of the LSE Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus - Hellenic Observatory, Professor in Political Economy and Eleftherios Venizelos Chair of Contemporary Greek Studies at the European Institute, LSE.

The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.

LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of The London School of Economics and Political Science.

From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.

Whilst we are hosting this listing, LSE Events does not take responsibility for the running and administration of this event. While we take responsible measures to ensure that accurate information is given here (for instance by checking that the room has been booked) this event is ultimately the responsibility of the organisation presenting the event.

LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of the London School of Economics and Political Science.