Parliament is a politics themed strategy card game for 3-4 players. It involves the brinksmanship of poker, the contingency planning of chess, and the haggling of a used car purchase.
Each player represents a political party, and each party has different, but overlapping, voting preferences on various issue categories. The preferences are balanced so that no party has a greater likelihood of victory than any other.
Each player receives several points cards which indicate the points they will score for winning a given issue. Some are dealt face up and some are dealt face down, giving other players incomplete information about how much their rivals stand to gain on any given vote.
Each round, players take turns nominating issues and casting votes in a rotating order.
Players can only cast a limited number of votes each round, which they must ration carefully.
Throughout the game, players can form voting pacts with each other―however, the pacts are non-binding and so betrayal is always possible.