Parliamentary websites can help people engage with elected representatives and the democratic process. Devin Joshi and Erica Rosenfield have been comparing the websites of legislatures across the world. Here, they share their findings on how the UK Parliament compares to its international counterparts, finding it an excellent model worthy of being emulated elsewhere, with some room for further improvement.
In the digital age, new modes of online communication have great potential to improve the quality of democracy by bestowing citizens with the ability to easily communicate their ideas and concerns both horizontally with other citizens, and vertically with policy-makers and government leaders. Parliamentary websites, in particular, can be a powerful vehicle to enhance political communication as well as transparency, participation, representation, and accountability, all of which are crucial to the quality of a liberal democracy. (...)
