Benchmarking and Self-Assessment for Parliaments
Benchmarking and Self-Assessment for Parliaments

Author: Mitchell O'Brien

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2016-03-28

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1464803285

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With international focus on good governance and parliamentary effectiveness, a standards-based approach involving benchmarks and assessment frameworks has emerged to evaluate parliament's performance and guide its reforms. The World Bank's has been a leader in the development of these frameworks, stewarding a global multi-stakeholder process aimed at enhancing consensus around parliamentary benchmarks and indicators with international organizations and parliaments across the world. The results so far, some of which are captured in this book, are encouraging: countries as diverse as Australia, Canada, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Zambia have used these frameworks for self-evaluation and to guide efficiency-driven reforms. Donors and practitioners, too, are finding the benchmarks useful as baselines against which they can assess the impact of their parliamentary strengthening programs. The World Bank itself is using these frameworks to surface the root causes of performance problems and explore how to engage with parliamentary institutions in order to achieve better results. The World Bank can identify opportunities to help improve the oversight function of parliament, thus holding governments to account, giving 'voice' to the poor and disenfranchised, and improving public policy formation in order to achieve a nation's development goals. In doing so, we are helping make parliaments themselves more accountable to citizens and more trusted by the public.

National and Regional Parliaments in the EU-Legislative Procedure Post-Lisbon
National and Regional Parliaments in the EU-Legislative Procedure Post-Lisbon

Author: Anna Jonsson Cornell

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-01-12

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1782259198

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Much has changed in European constitutional law after the Lisbon Treaty, not least the efforts to increase democratic legitimacy by engaging national legislatures and introducing a stricter subsidiary review process, namely the Early Warning Mechanism (EWM). This collection looks at how national parliaments have adapted to their new roles and looks at how the new system has impacted on relations between the EU legislative bodies and national parliaments. A team of experts from across Europe explore the effect of the EWM on the national constitutional orders; analyse the regional impact of EWM and evaluate the new system of scrutiny.

Accountability, Parliamentarism and Transparency in the EU
Accountability, Parliamentarism and Transparency in the EU

Author: Adam Cygan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1782548653

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It was a great pleasure to find such a rich analysis of the role of national parliaments in the EU. What I particularly like - and what proves to be particularly fruitful is the combination of perspectives; the EU law and national constitutional perspective including a comparative dimension, the perspective that explains the role of national parliaments in the EU from past to present (and even near future) and last but not least, the perspective of the interaction between the legal frameworks and the political reality. There is every reason to congratulate Adam Cygan wholeheartedly on this book. Ton Van Den Brink, Europa Instituut Utrecht, The Netherlands One of the most outstanding specialists on the role of national parliaments in the EU has produced another impressive book about this dynamic topic. It provides an illuminating overview of current practices, it sharply analyses the legal status quo, and it brings theoretical depth to the topic in multiple perspectives. Olaf Tans, Amsterdam University College, The Netherlands This accessible and detailed book takes an interdisciplinary approach in exploring the position of national parliaments in the EU polity and in particular their position within the EU governance framework. Adam Cygan analyses the impact of subsidiarity monitoring upon national parliaments and to what extent this provides new opportunities for national parliaments to be engaged in, and exert influence over, the EU legislative process. While the post-Lisbon position of national parliaments may have improved, this book questions whether national parliaments can really be considered as central actors in EU affairs. The author also queries whether subsidiarity monitoring has the capacity to create a collective bloc of horizontal actors which exert effective accountability over the EU legislative process. Accountability, Parliamentarism and Transparency in the EU will strongly appeal to academics, parliamentarians/parliamentary officials working in EU affairs, as well as EU civil servants.

Digital Political Communication Strategies
Digital Political Communication Strategies

Author: Berta García-Orosa

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-11-25

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 3030815684

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This book, with a foreword by Manuel Castells, explores the core strategies of digital political communication. It reviews the field’s evolution over the past 25 years and examines the coexistence of old and new actors (lobbyists, citizens, parliaments, political parties, media outlets, digital platforms, among others), as well as hybrid communication tactics. Topics covered include frames, fake news, filter bubbles, echo chambers, artificial intelligence, the significance of emotions, and engagement with citizens. As we find ourselves in the fourth wave of digital communication, and in the wake of a pandemic which has shaken the foundations of political communication, an evaluation of these topics is essential to the reinvention of democracy. The book is geared towards students and researchers who wish to delve into the latest trends in digital communication, political communication actors and journalists. It further aims to prepare citizens to effectively deal with messaging that blurs the line between truth and falsehood with increasingly powerful strategies supported by artificial intelligence.

Enhancing effectiveness of parliaments in Africa during crises
Enhancing effectiveness of parliaments in Africa during crises

Author: Melvis Ndiloseh

Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)

Published: 2023-05-11

Total Pages: 67

ISBN-13: 9176716309

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During a crisis such as a public emergency, the effectiveness of parliaments should be assessed by considering their ability to activate in a timely manner the necessary disaster management legislative framework, and to provide oversight to ensure that such legislation is applied by the executive in a necessary, non-discriminatory and proportional way. There are various global and regional frameworks designed to guide parliaments on improving and assessing their effectiveness. The question is whether these guidelines were relevant and helpful as a resource for aiding effective parliamentary responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Parliamentary Oversight of the Executives
Parliamentary Oversight of the Executives

Author: Elena Griglio

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-10-01

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1509925708

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Oversight of executives has always been a key function of parliaments and one that is central to developing the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government. However, in reality governments are taking a more pronounced role in controlling legislation, diluting the influence of parliament. This book plots this trend in parliaments across Europe, to illustrate points of convergence and divergence. In so doing, it suggest tools and methods that parliaments can develop to bolster their crucial oversight role.

Parliament, the Budget and Gender
Parliament, the Budget and Gender

Author: Joachim Wehner

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 101

ISBN-13: 9789291421879

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This handbook, jointly produced with the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank Institute and the United Nations Fund for Women, was inspired by a series of regional and national seminars on Parliament and the Budgetary Process, Including from a Gender Perspective. Intended as a reference tool, it sets out practical examples of parliament's active engagement in the budgetary process, seeking to advance parliaments' own institutional capacities to make a positive impact on the budget, and to equip parliament, its members and parliamentary staff with the necessary tools to examine the budget from a gender perspective.--Publisher's description.

Government Accountability and Legislative Oversight
Government Accountability and Legislative Oversight

Author: Riccardo Pelizzo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-12

Total Pages: 127

ISBN-13: 1317913213

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The purpose of the book is to investigate parliaments’ capacity to oversee government activities, policies and budget legislation. By analysing the survey data that the World Bank Institute in collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union collected from 120 parliaments, Pelizzo and Stapenhurst show what tools are available to parliaments worldwide, which tools are more or less common, how oversight capacity can be estimated, how oversight capacity is related to other institutional and constitutional factors. In addition to discussing the conditions under which oversight capacity is greater, the authors perform some analyses to assess the policy implications of oversight capacity. Specifically, they look at the impact of oversight capacity on the quality of democracy and on the level of good governance.