The state of e-parliamentin 2012

In 2007 the survey launched by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament assessed the state of e-parliament in the world’s legislatures. Based on the survey results, the World e-Parliament Report 2008 identified three levels of adoption of technology. At the high end some legislatures were very successful in their use of ICT to support their goals, including having developed systems and using open standards for managing most of their critical documents. They also had websites that presented current activities of the parliament in multiple formats, including real time video, and were creating archives of this information. They were building a wide ranging policy and legislative knowledge base available to members and the public. Legislators had computers in their offices and a laptop that provided remote access to parliament and its information. Many were exploring new ICT-based methods for communicating with citizens and for engaging them in constructive discussions of policy options. However, the survey estimated that less than 10 per cent of respondents fell into this category, and these parliaments were all from either the high or upper middle income groups.

Related Subject(s): Democracy and Governance