Objective/context:

The article presents a review of the recent literature on the external action of parliaments that have emerged in Europa and Latin America. Based on this review, it proposes an integrative view that characterizes the evolution, the roles and the action strategies of parliamentary actors as new agents of diplomatic relations. It also aims to understand how the emergence of this new parliamentary diplomacy is associated to the crisis of representation in the political systems as a response to the new requirement for political legitimacy.

Methodology:

The study was guided by a reflection on the theoretical-practical problems set out by this new form of external action, categorizing the different types of behavior of parliamentary diplomacy, and problematizing the ways in which political legitimation can contribute in times of globalization.

Conclusions:

In a recent field of study with relatively scarce related literature, this article concludes by indicating certain lines that open up a research agenda relating to parliamentary diplomacy, generating questions that motivate a more detailed examination of the ways in the relationship between the representation of citizen plurality held by the parliamentarians and their external actions in a globalized world society.

Originality:

In Europe and Latin America, studies on parliamentary diplomacy have traditionally been dealt with thorough different approached, with cognitive interests and dissimilar emphases. However, this article proposes a dialogue between both “currents” to provide an integrative view of the phenomenon, in order to present a broader characterization of the scope of the behaviors that must be studied in relation to parliamentary diplomacy. Finally, it situates the phenomenon within a framework of more encompassing reflections that refer to the problem of the legitimation of the political systems at national and global scales, and the transformations of diplomatic practices in today’s world.