Andreas Schäfer provides a new, contextualized approach to analyzing the conditions, practices, and effects of deliberation in the parliamentary decision-making process, highlighting dimensions of democratic practice that have been overlooked in prevailing research approaches. In a case study of the German Bundestag, he demonstrates, among other things, that deliberation serves both consensus-building and contestatory functions, and particularly generates specific indirect and long-term effects. The study opens up new theoretical perspectives for examining the role of deliberation both in parliament and within a democratic system as a whole.