Since its inception in 2020, membership of the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN) has continued to grow, with new members joining us from different parts of the world on an ongoing basis.

We’re delighted to announce that we now have over 400 members in the network. The reach of our membership now covers over 70 countries and six continents.

Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN, said:

“We never quite envisaged that our membership would expand this much. We’re delighted to have members recently joining us from such diverse countries as Australia, Ghana and Madagascar.

“The sharing of different experiences, knowledge and challenges from all corners of the world is what makes the IPEN community so rich.”

The International Parliament Engagement Network brings together academics, parliamentary officials and third sector representatives from across the world, to promote collaboration and encourage knowledge sharing around parliaments and public engagement.

IPEN connects its members through the sharing of research and reports, facilitating introductions, discussions and exchanges via MS Teams and hosting professional development seminars online. Being a part of a unique global network brings a range of benefits to IPEN’s 400+ members and, amongst other things, has initiated collaboration between officials from different parliaments and enhancement of engagement practices thanks to evidence-based research.

We asked our members to tell us (in just one sentence) the most important thing that being a part of IPEN has brought to their work or research.

Caroline Wallis is Education Lead at the New Zealand Parliament. Caroline has been a member of IPEN since 2021 and became the newest member of the Executive Board earlier this year. Caroline said:

“I think being a part of IPEN has opened my eyes to the depth and breadth of research based practice there is for parliamentary public engagement.

“It has helped me think about what is important to consider for initiatives, and gives me inspiration for future work.”

Other lovely feedback from our IPEN members indicates the range of benefits to being a part of our global network:

“It’s so hard to restrict this to one sentence, but I think being a member of IPEN has broadened my horizons in that it has enabled me to not only connect with people who work in and study other parliaments across the world, but I’m also able to listen and read first-hand about activities and operations from those parliaments. And that is something I cherish.”

“Becoming part of a rich network of nice people with interesting questions and helpful answers and getting a so much broader scope of parliamentary issues and practices all over the world. Big thank you to the team for facilitating this!”

“For me it is a gateway to facilitate further international engagements with parliamentary people who have similar experiences and a rich bounty of knowledge, expertise and assistance to share.”

“IPEN to me is a community of experience and professional experts who have really revolutionised various sectors of our society through idea and knowledge exchange, and in addressing the most critical issues facing leadership and Sustainable Development Goals. IPEN has been a professional learning space, value base network community and policy development springboard for me.”

“I am sorry, one sentence can’t be enough to write about the meaning and benefit of IPEN vision and mission in our world society today. Keep up the good work because the impact is an history [sic].”

“IPEN has been a pure joy since I joined. The webinars and data available on here are very crucial to my work.”

“My sentence is ‘I agree with all of the above’! Honestly – this is such an amazing space and I only wish I was able to spend more time here and my aim for 2024 is to do so! Thanks Cristina Leston Bandeira and team for your creation and curation of this space.”

“As a recent member, I’ve found IPEN provides an opportunity to learn from and network with others who value public participation in parliamentary practice and democracy generally, as well as offering a space to discover good practices around the world.”

We would like to offer a huge thanks to all of our members for being a part of our ever-growing network and for their many contributions – not only within the network itself, but more significantly in promoting and practicing parliamentary public engagement in their work and research across the globe.

Find out more about IPEN membership.

Article published: 19 March 2024

A new blog by IPEN member Ailsa Burn-Murdoch (Senior Researcher at the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, SPICe) summarises the recent milestones the Scottish Parliament have passed in embedding deliberative democracy in scrutiny.
 
After a year and a half of fact finding and commissioning a full citizens’ panel to explore public participation in the Scottish Parliament, the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee published its final report and recommendations on 12 September 2023.
 
The blog post focuses on the Committee’s aspirations for institutionalising deliberative democracy, the first steps being taken in exploring and realising that, and key risks in the coming years.

Alisa Burn-Murdoch said:
 
“The Scottish Parliament has had an internal unit dedicated to supporting citizen participation for several years, and it delivered its first Citizens’ Panels in 2019. The publication of this report, and its unanimous support from the wider membership of the Scottish Parliament, marks a significant step in institutionalising deliberative practice.

“The Parliament will be piloting two more people’s panels, in 2024 and 2025, including one supporting post-legislative scrutiny. The hope is that by the end of the current Parliamentary session, in 2026, the Committee will be able to recommend a practice, governance and accountability framework for the use of deliberative methods that will help the institution to grow and strengthen the role of citizens in its work in future sessions.”
 
Embedding Deliberative Democracy in a Participatory Parliament was published on 6 November on the Scottish Parliament website.

Find out more about SPICe.

Images

Scottish Parliament Chamber Floor; Exterior view of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Photos courtesy of the Scottish Parliament.

Article published: 29 November 2023

Parlamento digital: conceitos e práticas (Digital Parliaments: Theory and Practice) is a new e-book published by Editora Universidade de Brasília (EDU) which features chapters written by members of the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). 

Organized by leading researchers in the field of legislative studies in Brazil — including IPEN members Cristiane Brum Bernardes (Chamber of Deputies, Brazil) and Isabele Mitozo (Federal University of Minas Gerais) — the volume brings a set of texts that covers the digitization of parliaments from different perspectives. 

Any analysis of the institutional and political scenario of the 21st century needs to take into account that the use of the internet by political actors is a growing reality in most countries. With regard to Parliament, the central institution of representative democracies as we know them, the perspectives and trends follow the same direction.  

Representatives, institutional actors, citizens and civil society organizations are engaged in the use of different platforms, with a specific interest in influencing political decisions, in a process that studies call ‘Digital Democracy’.

In the last two decades, the acceleration of the processes of digitization of the political sphere around the world, especially with the entry of political actors and institutions into the social media environment, has created new complexities for the relationship between legislative houses and citizens. 

This is one of the focuses of the publication, which thematizes different aspects of the digitization processes in the representative institutional environment. 

Cristiane Brum Bernardes and Isabele Mitozo have written and contributed to chapters on ‘The crowdlaw experience in Brazil: Online collaborative drafting of laws in the Chamber of Deputies’ and ‘Digital Innovations for Parliaments: Research and Practice’. 

Isabele Mitozo is Assistant Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. She takes the promotion of democratic values, as transparency and public engagement, in Parliaments as the focus of her research. Isabele said: 

“In a context of high discredit in political institutions, it is important that parliaments, one of the institutions with the least credibility among citizens, understand how to use digital tools to reinforce democratic values and try to reconnect with the public, which is extensively discussed in the book.

“In the first chapter, we present a brief history of the digitization of parliaments, how this panorama has added new concepts to the literature and established a new area of studies on digital innovations for parliaments. This highlight is important for the understanding of the purposes and characteristics that should be implied to the initiatives developed into the Houses.”

Cristiane Brum Bernardes works at the National Observatory of Women in Politics (ONMP) and as a professor at the Master in Legislatures at the Centre for Education and Training (CEFOR), both functions of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. Her research and professional practice focus on political identities and communicative performances, specifically of women politicians through social media and institutional spaces. Regarding the experiences of crowdlaw, Cristiane said:

“The potentials of crowdlaw systems are already widely known, but it is also necessary to discuss their limitations, such as the design and format of online platforms, the management of participation in these tools, and the uneven and incomplete implementation of these intentions.”

The book also includes a chapter on ‘E-Petitions to Parliament’ by Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN. Cristina’s research is themed around the relationship between parliament and citizens, particularly public and digital engagement, and in recent years much of her work has been focused on petitions. Cristina said: 

“E-petitions have become very popular in the 21st century, following a general decline in paper petitions in the 20th century. The electronic format of petitions enables an amplification of its potential in reach and, when parliaments have well integrated processes, they can lead to effective pathways for citizens to shape policy.”

It is important that parliaments, one of the institutions with the least credibility among citizens, understand how to use digital tools to reinforce democratic values and try to reconnect with the public.

Isabele Mitozo

The book concludes with ‘An Agenda for Research, Reflection and Practical Applications in Digital Parliament’ from all four editors which presents an overview on the current state of digitization in parliaments, the problems and advances in the initiatives presented in the chapters, and the new possibilities showed by the Covid-19 pandemic adaptations in Parliaments.

Ultimately, all these initiatives have become opportunities to reinforce democratic values and improve digital governance in Parliaments and Legislatures, even if most of them still need a real connection with the legislative process.

Parlamento digital: conceitos e práticas (edited by Cristiane Brum Bernardes, Isabele Mitozo, Sérgio Braga and Sivaldo Pereira da Silva) was published by Editora Universidade de Brasília (EDU) on 3 October 2023. 

The e-book can be found here via open access. Please note that the book is only available in Portuguese. 

More information

Cristiane Brum Bernardes is a Professor and researcher of the Master’s in Legislatures at the Centre for Education and Training (CEFOR) of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. With a PhD in Political Science, she works at the National Observatory of Women in Politics (ONMP) from the Chamber. She is also a member of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Digital Democracy (INCT-DD), the Global Research Network on Parliaments and People (SOAS, University of London) and the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN).

Isabele B. Mitozo is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department/Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), and coordinates the Research Group on Democracy, Communication and Digital Engagement. Her research agenda focuses on digital innovations for promoting transparency and public engagement in parliaments and legislatures.

Cristina Leston-Bandeira is Chair of IPEN and a Professor of Politics in the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. She has conducted research on Parliaments for nearly 30 years. Her research focuses on the relationship between Parliament and citizens, particularly public and digital engagement. Hear Cristina talk about e-petitions in a recent UK House of Commons Committee Corridor podcast.

Article published: 24 October 2023

As part of our ongoing ‘spotlight on public engagement practice’ series, this month we highlight initiatives featured in a paper by IPEN member and Community Education Officer Natalie Badcock (formerly Young), published in the Australasian Parliamentary Review.

In the paper, Natalie explores the successes and learnings of the Regional Education Strategy of the Parliament of South Australia, reflecting on how parliamentary education can be made more accessible.

Launched in 2021, the Parliament’s travelling regional education program is targeted at electorates with the lowest school visitation data within a given period. The program includes a focus on the key principles underpinning parliamentary systems in Australia, a demonstration of the passage of the bill and interactive activities relating to how students can participate in ‘active’ citizenship.

Special equipment was procured for the program in an effort to bring the Parliament to life outside of the physical building, including six metre by four metre floor mats of the House of Assembly, Legislative Council and steps of Parliament House. The equipment also included a replica Mace and Black Rod, wigs, robes, ballot boxes, bells and debate scripts.

Civics in the City is a regional and remote financial assistance program launched by Parliament in 2022, whereby five schools were selected to receive money to support travel and accommodation costs to Adelaide, and to visit Parliament House during their city stay.

Natalie’s paper explores the successes and learnings of these two initiatives, and concludes that feedback and interest in them provides strong justification for building and enhancing regional programs.

Regional Education Outreach at the Parliament of South Australia: Strategies and Learnings by Natalie Young (Badcock) was published via open access in the Australasian Parliamentary Review (Spring/Summer 2022 Vol 37 No 2).

IPEN members can also hear Natalie speaking about Australia’s education outreach work in a recording of a Public Engagement Hub seminar which took place in November 2022 (available in IPEN’s MS Teams space). The seminar – Reaching out to remote communities – also included speakers from Serbia and South Africa.

Article published: 23 October 2023

An article by IPEN member Temitayo Odeyemi (School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds) about legislative public engagement in Nigeria was published in the LSE blog earlier this month. 

In the blog post, Temitayo sets out how “Nigerian legislators are often aloof and inaccessible” which creates “an environment where citizens don’t understand what they do”. This, says Odeyemi, leads to people having “unrealistic expectations of them which in turn is damaging trust in the democratic process”. 

Temitayo outlines three specific actions for Nigeria’s legislatures to undertake to meet their public engagement challenges: 

• Meaningful information dissemination and communication  
• Build capacity for public education initiatives 
• Listen to the public through consultation and petitions 

He then brings this all together by urging the legislatures to move things forward and says: 

“A starting point is the need to develop public engagement strategies which build on their respective legislative agenda. These should draw connections between different roles and allocate needful resources to support meaningful ongoing relationships with the public.” 

The article ends with Odeyemi stressing the importance of tapping into existing resources, giving examples of legislative public engagement strategies, insights from support networks and the Global Parliamentary Report as useful examples. 

You can read Temitayo’s article — Nigerian legislatures need to repair their poor relationship with the people — on the LSE blog (dated 11 October 2023). 

The blog post is based on the paper Turning public engagement into standard practice: Institutionalisation in the work of the South African Parliament which was published in The Journal for Legislative Studies on 9 April 2023.

The article can be found here via open access and was featured in the June 2023 edition of the IPEN newsletter. 

Image

Nigeria’s National Assembly. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Article published: 23 October 2023

Have you got an example of public engagement practice you’re involved with that you’d like to share with other IPEN members?

Are you developing any exciting new projects connected to public engagement with parliaments?

Are you involved with any new research on the topic?

Or are you looking to link up with others to find solutions to problems you face in creating meaningful engagement strategies for your parliament?

IPEN Showcase is a chance for International Parliament Engagement Network members to come together to share what they are doing, get feedback, develop ideas and meet others doing similar things. 

We’d like to invite IPEN members to take part in this first of a new series of online events aimed at sharing work or research in under five minutes!

More details about how to take part can be found in our IPEN MS Teams space or contact Fiona Blair at f.blair@leeds.ac.uk.

This online event is open to all members of the International Parliament Engagement Network.

Find out more about the network.

Article published: 10 October 2023