various parliaments around the world, inviting written responses and conducting follow-up interviews. Given the range of issues involved, the report has a number of potential audiences, but the basic intention is to provide politicians, parliamentary staff, practitioners and academics with some insight into the changing practices of parliamentary representation. The publication cannot offer a comprehensive typology of the breadth of parliaments in the world today, nor can it encapsulate the diverse range of citizens these institutions represent. Electorates are not monolithic and certain groups – women, minorities, young people, people in rural areas, to name just a few such groups – will have specific and unique challenges in engaging with their elected leaders and with parliament as an institution. The experiences of these groups merit a full and deep analysis that, while beyond the scope of this report, should be considered at length in future Global Parliamentary Reports. The politicians and parliamentary staff whom we surveyed and interviewed were asked to identify the principal challenges to the relationship between parliaments and citizens. We use examples and anecdotes throughout the report to illustrate these dynamics, focusing on reforms that offer practical solutions to specific problems, but that also strengthen the key strategic and symbolic roles of parliament in representing the public interest. We rely heavily on the voices of politicians and parliamentary staff to tell that story, as their stories often encapsulated a broad range of issues. It became resoundingly clear that almost every parliament recognizes the need to improve the public’s
understanding and impression of its work and that the vast majority of parliaments are seeking to implement changes to that end. Their responses suggested that public pressure has resulted most obviously in reforms that aim to alter institutional procedures and structures in order to improve how parliaments engage and interact with citizens. But also, that public pressure is influencing how politicians approach their representative role.
Almost every parliament recognizes the need to improve the public’s understanding and impression of its work and that the vast majority of parliaments are seeking to implement changes to that end.
The structure of the report is built around these insights. Chapter II examines the various institutional responses of parliaments, first, to the public’s expectation of having greater access to, and information about, parliament and, second, to the public’s demands to have greater influence over policy. Chapters III and IV then assess how parliaments and politicians are responding to demands for greater accountability, responsiveness and constituency service. The final chapter, Parliamentary Reform – Resilience and Renewal, attempts to draw together the main lessons of the report.
Global Parliamentary Report: The changing nature of parliamentary representation
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