papaloi e parliaments and novel p2 c services-papaloi&gouscos (final)

1. Aspasia Papaloi Research Fellow, NTLAB, in Communication, Education and the Mass Media, University of Athens E-mail:[email_address] Dimitris Gouscos Lecturer, Department of Communication and Media Studies, University of Athens E-mail:[email_address] http://www.media.uoa.gr/medialab/ 06/05/10 EDem 2010-A. Papaloi & D. Gouscos

Central institution

Enables the expression of the will of people

Laws are passed

Government is held to account

Anders Johnsson, IPU Secretary General (2006)

Generation of governments capable of governing

Support by the majority in parliament

Cooperation of high disciplined parties

Parties that produce a decision-making process highly centralized

Cheibub and Limongi (2002)

Accountability of its members to the electorate

Integrity of MPs in the conduct of their work

An institution socially and politically representative

An institution ensuring equal opportunities and protections for all its members

An effective parliament by producing better laws, policies and programs

Legislative and oversight functions, that serve the needs of the population

Openness to the nation through different media

A transparent parliament, as far as the conduct of its business is concerned

Involvement of public, associations, and movements of civil society in its works

A connective parliament, intending to the building of trust between

government and citizens and to the strengthening of governance legitimacy

Age-group parliaments

Physical presence and interaction of participants. Simulation of parliamentary proceedings and discussion of issues in two levels: i. In committee meetings, and ii. In a Plenary session

Examples: Youth Parliament, Elders Parliament in Cyprus

Social parliaments

Citizens meetings from different areas or with different demographic characteristics. Discussion, learning and exchange ofideas on issues of public importance. Proposal ofrecommendations to the government as a medium of public deliberation and participation in decision-making.

Example: Citizens Parliament in Australia

Thematic parliaments

Programs, which enable the deliberation among participants over a specific issue.

Example: European Citizens Panel organized by EC

Alternative parliamentsorCounter-parliaments

Associations of groups of people indicating their need to express themselves in a different milieu.

Example: Structure of citizens protest on current social issues or their participation in the current political agenda

A transparent, accessible and accountablelegislature through ICT

A legislature empowering people, in all their diversity, to be more engaged

in public life

A legislature providing higher quality information and greater access to its

parliamentary documents and activities

An organisation where connected stakeholders use ICT to support its primary

functions of representation, law-making and oversight more effectively

Fostering the development of an equitable and inclusive information society,

through the application of modern technology and standards and the adoption of

supportive policies

(United Nations, 2008: 12).

General information about parliament

Information about legislation, budget, and oversight

Finding, receiving, and viewing information

Communication and dialogue with citizens

Usability, accessibility, and language

Management and responsibilities

Parliament-to-Parliament services (P2P)

Parliament-to-Members of Parliament services (P2MP)

Parliament-to-Citizen services (P2C)

Citizens-to-Parliament services (C2P)

Parliament-to-Parliament services (P2P)

Implementation of technological tools for the facilitation of information exchange among parliaments.

Example: IPEX (Inter-Parliamentary EU Information Exchange)

Characteristics

Database for storage of parliamentary documents, as far as the national scrutiny is concerned, of decisions taken at the EU level

Objectives

Facilitation of the exchange of all EU-related information between parliaments

Fora for the exchange of views on scrutiny including subsidiarity aspects

Maintenance of a calendar concerning interparliamentary meetings

IPEX Brochure (n.d.)

Parliament-to-Members of Parliament services (P2MP)

Implementation of ICT tools for the facilitation of MPs work.

Highly ranked services used by the MPs: mobile technology, webmail, remote access to legislative documents, use of laptop computers.

Example: Use of mobile phones by the Finnish Parliament

Facilitation for loan library services (availability of requested material, loan period, requests to

the Information Service

Facilitation of MPs and civil servants work while on move (GPRS data services, automated

calendar, event notifications)

(The Library of Parliament, 2007; Telia Sonera, 2005; Fujitsu, n.d.)

Parliament-to-Citizen services (P2C)

Creation of projects with the aim to attract citizens interest and to enhance their participation in parliamentary proceedings.

Example: e-Petition Project by the Scottish Parliament

Citizens-to-Parliament services (C2P)

Services available to citizens for contact with their MPs and further feedback to parliament.

Example: UK-based My Society projects, such as Hear from Your MP, Write to Them and They Work for You

Hear from Your MP Communication scheme through e-mail service

CitizensMPs

E-Rulemaking

Serves for submission of comments and interactive deliberation over pending rulemakings. Basically, implemented in the US with the aim toincrease democratic legitimacy and regulatory compliance, improve policy decisions and decrease administrative costs

Advantages:

Transparency on citizens rulemaking proposals

Familiarization with corresponding tools by rulemaking agencies

Improvement of regulatory decisions

Increase of quality pertaining to government rules

Development of new e-services (e.g. digital libraries)

(Coglianese, 2004)

Participatory Budgeting

Implementation on municipality level since 1989, in order to enable citizens know about government operations, hold government into account and influence government policies (Islam, 2007)

Advantages:

Broadening of citizen awareness over social and political issues

Prevention of corruption

Enforcement of decision-making in democratic regimes

Engagement of many stakeholders (local governments, individual citizens, NGOs etc.) that makes the

decision taken more complex, but also credible, comprehensive and fair

(Moynihan, 2007)

Argument Visualization

Implementation ofgraphical representation in a shared user space of the arguments formulated during a public dialogue (e.g. WAVE project with the use of Debategraph platform)

Advantages:

Multi-lingual cross-border context

Inclusiveness and transparency of EU decision making at national and European level

Differing points of view (in order to make complex ideas simpler)

Use of wikis for collaboration and feedback on legislation

(WAVE Project)

Discussion Visualization

Implementation of text visualization of the topics discussed in a public dialogue (e.g. VIDI project)

Advantages:

Efficient interaction between citizens and policy makers

Text visualization facilitates the understanding, discovery and summarization of the topics discussed

(VIDI Project)

Argument and Discussion visualization

Youth Parliaments

Reasons for combining argument and discussion visualization services with Youth Parliaments :

Argument maps are usually used in formal education for learning and understanding complex

concepts or ideas

Data or text visualization fosters the summarization and categorization of information, which

enables the managing of simpler ideas by young people

Experimental learning and game-based learning is amusing to young people, more engaging and

the outcomes are easily extracted

Young people are acquainted with novel ICT tools, which enable collaboration (e.g. wikis)

Argument visualization or discussion visualization projects can foster further

discussion and inclusion of more participants pertaining to Youth Parliament programs

E-rulemaking and Participatory Budgeting

Social and Thematic Parliaments

Reasons for combining e-Rulemaking and Participatory Budgeting services with Social and Thematic Parliaments:

Adults can form more complex ideas and deliberate in a more formal way

Adults want to take part in democraticand parliamentary procedures in such a way, that

their opinions or ideas will be heard and taken into account

Abovementioned projects enable a level of transparency, knowledge of governments

operations and inclusion ofall citizens

The outcomes of these deliberations can effect citizens everyday life directly, if they are

enacted soon by governments

Generally:

Strategic planning

User surveys

Availability and management of human and financial resources

Strong political will

Specifically:

Elaboration of benefits and measurable outcomes expected by the introduction of novel

P2C services

Detailed investigation of service contents, service provision and citizen participation workflows

Exploration of political, organizational and legal issues arisen pertaining to parliaments

Exploration ofsocio-cultural issues arisen pertaining to citizens

Regionallevel:

Greek Operational Programme on Digital Convergence

European level:

ICT Policy Support Programme by European Commission

http://www.media.uoa.gr/medialab/

papaloi e parliaments and novel p2 c services-papaloi&gouscos (final)

Documents

citizens parliament

transparent parliament

elders parliament

youth parliament

connective parliament

effective parliament

different media

issues of public importance