Are parliaments still privileged sites for studying politics and liberal democracy?

This chapter examines whether parliaments are still privileged sites for studying politics and liberal democracy in three steps. In the first part, it presents the key terms of the title – politics, parliaments and liberal democracy – more or less as they appear in the actor-network theory (ANT) literature. In the second part, in order to highlight a number of current developments that pose major challenges for both political theory and ANT, it discusses a set of complementary terms – people, problems and worlds – through snippets from recent empirical work on the European refugee crisis, global drug policy and Indigenous initiatives in northern Australia. Finally, the chapter offers a tentative answer to the title’s question, the aim of which – in the best of parliamentary fashions – is not to close down, but rather to generate further debate.