Are ICTs Changing Parliamentary Activity in the Portuguese Parliament?

This article looks at the extent to which the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has brought changes to parliamentary activity in the Portuguese parliament. It explains the process through which ICTs have been introduced in this parliament, as well as looking at MPs' perceptions of ICT. It assesses the impact of ICTs on two key areas of parliamentary activity: the relationship between parliament and citizens and internal parliamentary work. The article is based on research by documentary analysis, interviews, questionnaires and web surveys. The research shows that the main area where ICTs have made a difference is in the relationship with citizens, making the Portuguese parliament a more open institution.     

Integrating the view of the public into the formal legislative process: public reading stage in the UK House of Commons

Recent years have seen increasing calls to integrate the public's voice into the parliamentary process. This article examines the impact of public reading stage (PRS) on the UK Parliament's scrutiny of a bill. A new stage of the legislative process piloted by the House of Commons in February 2013, PRS invited the public to comment on a bill undergoing parliamentary scrutiny (the Children and Families Bill). The PRS was designed to encourage members of the public to participate in the scrutiny of legislation through a specially designed forum on parliament's website. Over 1000 comments were submitted. Drawing on a content analysis of the comments given by the public to the bill, complemented by interviews with members of parliament, key officials and PRS participants, it was found that although the public reading stage had an impressive response, it failed to make much of a tangible impact on the parliamentary scrutiny of the bill. This was largely due to the choice of bill being used for the pilot and its lack of appropriate integration into the formal legislative process.     

Mind the Gap: Using UK Parliamentary Sources to Enhance Teaching

Online primary parliamentary sources can be of great value in teaching Parliament-related courses and a valuable means of promoting the development of students' research and analytical skills; particularly taking into account the research habits of the modern student population. Through a series of focus groups with politics students and a national survey of politics lecturers, the perceptions and current use of the UK Parliament website in teaching are analysed. It was found that a considerable number of lecturers are making use of the website for teaching purposes, though this is usually at a very basic and often superficial level. Barriers to the use of parliamentary resources include a lack of awareness of the types and variety of parliamentary material, difficulties in finding appropriate material on the Parliament website and a lack of understanding on the part of lecturers as to how to use this material effectively in lectures and seminars.