Managing Parliament's Image
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Hull
Department Name: Politics and International Studies
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
Publications
Griffith J
(2012)
How Are Parliaments Using New Media to Engage with Citizens?
in The Journal of Legislative Studies
Judge D
(2017)
The Institutional Representation of Parliament
in Political Studies
Leston-Bandeira C
(2012)
Parliaments' Endless Pursuit of Trust: Re-focusing on Symbolic Representation
in The Journal of Legislative Studies
Leston-Bandeira C
(2016)
Why symbolic representation frames parliamentary public engagement
in The British Journal of Politics and International Relations
Leston-Bandeira C
(2012)
The Pursuit of Legitimacy as a Key Driver for Public Engagement: The European Parliament Case
in Parliamentary Affairs
Leston-Bandeira C
(2011)
Towards a Trustee Model? Parliamentary Representation in the Internet Era: The Portuguese Case
in Parliamentary Affairs
Leston-Bandeira C.
(2013)
Parliaments and Citizens
| Description | The findings of the project encompass the following main themes: 1. The identification of a set of combined characteristics that specifically define the institution of parliament and affect its ability to protect and control its image; namely, their high visibility, combined with public direct accountability and their collective nature make parliament a particularly vulnerable institution in terms of public image. Parliament's specific characteristics raise many challenges such as communicating and engaging with the public, whilst keeping a non-political approach. These challenges are aggravated within the internet environment, where the public expects a more explicit approach of engagement. 2. Institutional characteristics of parliaments (namely size, age, electoral system, governance remit) do not impact greatly on the public engagement activities, or specifically on the types of websites developed. The structural factors with an impact are the political actors' ability to influence the parliament's administrative decisions and the availability of resources. Those parliaments where political representatives have a more active say in administrative decisions, are more likely to push towards innovative approaches to public engagement, particularly in times of declining public trust. Unsurprisingly, those parliaments investing more resources to this area, are the ones able to develop more innovative and wide ranging public engagement activities. Whilst parliaments with fewer resources are able to produce considerably innovative sporadic outputs, they are unable to keep this in the longer term. 3. Public engagement has clearly developed as a new activity for parliaments within the last decade, to the point of becoming a new role of parliament adding on to the traditional ones of legislation, scrutiny and representation. What is more, the rise of the internet has been a determinant factor in the expansion of this role, due to the new means of communication it enables and its consequential pressures (in transparency and accessibility potential). This new role is expressed in the creation of new services and activities specifically focused on communication and public engagement, non-existent until recently. The level of expansion and professionalization of these services varies considerably and the project identifies the different elements contributing towards more professionalised public engagement, such as strategic planning. We also show, however, that levels of public trust on parliament are not necessarily higher in those cases where public engagement has become more professionalised. |
| Exploitation Route | This research has been disseminated with several parliaments. This has led to a better understanding of the challenges that parliament, as an institution, faces in employing web based engagement tools. |
| Sectors | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The project has two strands of impact: academic and practitioner. Academically, the intellectual impact of the project so far is as follows: identifying the characteristics of a parliamentary institution which determine the specific nature of parliament's image; identifying the extent of the impact of the internet on parliament and, particularly, its ability to shape its image; determining the importance of administrative structures within parliament in terms of its impact on policies developed, namely in public engagement; identifying the specific challenges that social media present to parliament; defining the activity of parliamentary public engagement and, specifically, a five-steps process of public engagement. Besides conference presentations, we produced the following publications, which draw directly from this research: • "The Pursuit of Legitimacy as a Key Driver for Public Engagement: the case of the European Parliament", Parliamentary Affairs, 2012. • Edition of double special issue for The Journal of Legislative Studies on Parliaments and Citizens, vol.18, 3/4, 2012 - forthcoming as a book in 2013 by Routdedge. • "How are Parliaments Using New Media to Engage with Citizens?", The Journal of Legislative Studies, vol. 18, 3/4 2012 (50% with J. Griffith). • "Parliaments' endless pursuit of trust", The Journal of Legislative Studies, vol. 18, 3/4 2012. • "Towards a Trustee Model? Parliamentary Representation in the Internet Era" Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 65, 2, 2012. The project has also already had an impact on the practitioners' community. The project encompassed a close engagement with practitioners, through the participation in practitioners' conferences and submission of evidence. Some of this involvement was at the invitation of practitioners. The project also enabled us closer involvement with specific policies and reports. Specifically, the project's findings had an impact onto an international organisation, which supports parliaments across the globe in maximizing the use of the Internet to facilitate engagement with the public. We also provided advice to specific parliaments focused on the challenges and care in using social media to communicate with the public. This advice impacted directly onto decisions regarding their use of social media. We also participated in the ESRC Festival Social Sciences, by presenting a poster in the exhibition entitled 21st Century Lives: Local and Global Stories, exhibited at two different public galleries. The posters aimed to communicate our academic research to the wider public. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Advice to parliaments and international organisation on use of new/social media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | IT and public engagement teams met with me on this matter; one of them travelling to Hull from abroad for this purpose. Parliamentarians were able to develop their strategy towards the use of new/social media more effectively. International organisation was able to support parliaments better in their use of technology to enhance relationship between parliament and citizens. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |
| URL | http://www2.hull.ac.uk/fass/politics/research/research-impact/managing-parliaments-image.aspx |
| Description | Commissioner in Digital Democracy Commission, set up by Speaker of the House of Commons |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The DDC held more than 20 workshops, plus numerous online consultations and face-to-face meetings. in total this adds up to more than 100 events. The final report of the DDC has been read by many and is being followed up within Parliament, where each of the 34 recommendations we made are being evidenced and pushed forward. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
| URL | http://www.parliament.uk/business/commons/the-speaker/speakers-commission-on-digital-democracy/ |
| Description | Guest Opening talk, 'Parliament and Public Engagement: two sides of the same coin?', ECPRD annual seminar (Brussels, Belgium) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Over 80 parliamentary officials from 16 different parliaments across Europe attended this event. Direct contact and advice to specific parliaments followed this talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Guest talk 'Managing Parliamentary Websites', World eParliament Conference (South Africa) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Over 400 parliamentary officials from 80 different countries attended the event, with quite a few contacting me following the presentation. Several parliamentary officials got in touch following the presentation, for further advice on their practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Guest talk on the work of the Digital Democracy Commission to the ECPRD - European network of parliamentary practitioners working on digital engagement. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk presenting the work of the Digital Democracy Commission, to audience of representatives of parliaments from across Europe. All professionals working on digital tools for engagement with the public. About 60 attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |