Suchergebnisse

Based on research conducted by the Study of Parliament Group.

Examines attempts at and effects of the 1998 downsizing, especially on the Aug. 29, 1998 elections.

In an era of citizens' discontentment on democratic institutions, parliaments as a democratic cornerstone, are constantly striving to create alluring services taking, at the same time, into account the difficulty of achieving accessibility and transparency in citizens' e-participation. At the same time, the evolution of ICT tools presents opportunities to revamp the traditional character, functions and services of parliaments worldwide, giving rise to new capabilities and opportunities that can transform their political and social role. An e-enabled parliament can not only offer flexibility in parliamentary proceedings and facilitate the work of its members, but also strive for the inclusion of citizens, without annulling the representative character of the institution. In this paper, we present an initial overview of the characteristics of modern parliaments, recording existing service offerings and proposing a stakeholder-based categorization, with specific categories that can best accommodate explicit and active citizen participation within parliamentary functions. A number of existing citizen deliberation applications and research projects are highlighted as potential candidates for deploying novel extrovert parliament-to-citizen services, focused directly on citizen involvement. Moreover, the focus area based on the procedure from inclusion to feedback will give good evidence for all those factors that are necessary for a successful adoption of novel e-parliament services.

APPLYING THE RESEARCH FRAMEWORK OUTLINED IN THE INTRODUCTION, THIS PAPER FINDS THAT IN THE NEW DEMOCRACIES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE BORROWING FROM THE OLD REGIME RATHER THAN FROM WESTERN EXPERTISE IS PREDOMINANT IN CONSTITUTION MAKING AND THAT THE POLICY ACTIVITY OF THE NEW PARLIAMENTS IS SHAPED PREDOMINANTLY BY EXTERNAL INFLUENCES. THE FLUID NATURE OF POLITICAL PARTIES AND LIMITED PRESSURE GROUP ACTIVITY FACILITATE POLICY ACTIVITY AT THE EXPENSE OF "RESPONSIBLE" PARTY GOVERNMENT. POLICY ATTRIBUTES ARE SHAPED BY THE STANCE TOWARD THE OLD REGIME. A PROCESS OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION IS APPARENT, WITH GREATER ACTIVITY, COMMITTEE SPECIALIZATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL SOPHISTICATION.