MP Transparency, Communication Links and Social Media: A Comparative Assessment of 184 Parliamentary Websites

Abstract

Parliamentary websites (PWs) can potentially enhance the quality of government by providing information and communication links that stimulate political awareness, deliberation and participation. This article focuses on two particular uses of PWs that can facilitate communication between constituents and their Members of Parliament: provision of MP contact and background information; and links to social media. Through a seminal empirical examination of all 184 functioning lower house and unicameral PWs around the world, this study found that although PWs in wealthy democracies generally provide more MP information, the majority of PWs are deficient in providing basic MP information to citizens and utilizing linkages to social media. By contrast, some non-democratic states and newly democratized countries, especially those with compulsory voting, display a relatively high level of MP transparency and social media connectivity.

Keywords:

• parliamentary websites
• e-governance
• transparency
• communication
• social media
• Members of Parliament
• parliaments
• democracy
• compulsory voting

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge research and translation assistance from Malliga Och, Sumontha Och, Malgorzata Pawlak, Svetlana Shegai, Ameena Shrestha, and especially Raslan Ibrahim.

Note on Authors

Devin Joshi* is an Assistant Professor in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Colorado, USA, email: [email protected]; Erica Rosenfield is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, email: erica.rosenfield@alumni. utoronto.ca

*Corresponding author

Notes

Following Boyd and Ellison (2007), we define social network sites as ‘web-based services that (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system’.

The micro level of analysis is, however, beyond the scope of our study, which focuses on the impacts of larger structural and institutional forces in determining PW content.

All of these last eight states without a PW were classified by Freedom House (2010) as ‘unfree’ (that is, undemocratic).

The IPU (2000) established universally recommended and optional guidelines for: (1) essential content; (2) use of interactivity tools; and (3) usability and design of PWs. We chose to analyze the IPU 2000 guidelines as opposed to the IPU 2009 guidelines as a benchmark for assessing PW practices for two reasons. First, we are in a position to evaluate progress one decade after the establishment of the 2000 guidelines. Second, the 2009 guidelines are almost identical to the 2000 guidelines, except the distinction between ‘recommended’ and ‘optional’ has been eliminated (IPU, 2009, p. 10).

Although this finding reveals an important deficit, in 2000, the presence of MP names (75 per cent) and party information (52 per cent) was even less (IPU, 2000).

Though the concept of ‘constituency’ can refer to a variety of different population groupings based either on votes cast (as in proportional representation systems) or on divisions such as along territorial, class, religious and ethnic lines, MPs are assigned to represent specific sub-national territories or population groups in all countries except Israel and the Netherlands (Rehfeld, 2005, pp. 34–39).

We coded ‘standing committee memberships’ only as listed under details for individual MPs. In some cases, the MP composition of committees may have been available on the committees section of the PWs. We assumed that membership of temporary committees is both more difficult and less important to update regularly on PWs than membership in standing committees.

In 2000, only 30 per cent of PWs listed MPs' email addresses (IPU, 2000).

In some countries this information may be withheld owing to cultural taboos or legal concerns about MP privacy.

In Asia and Africa, only about seven out of 10 websites listed MPs' names compared with 95 per cent each in Europe and the Americas.

This may be a result of insufficient resources in terms of staff or funds to hire translators. Augmenting or shifting governance assistance funding from foreign donors may be able to resolve this issue.

We also coded a ‘yes’ for social media in two exceptional cases (South Korea and the USA) where a majority of MPs had such links on their own personal websites.

MPs may understandably fear being bombarded by calls if they provide a direct phone number, but it is also important for constituents to have a means to contact their MP at least through a constituency office or parliamentary switchboard phone number.