In-person activities provide a level of interaction and relationship building that other mechanisms cannot, and are extremely important to any citizen participation strategy. The following section provides an overview of where specific in-person mechanisms can be helpful within the legislative process.
Responsible actor: Parliament
Citizen participation offices can provide a point of contact for citizens to get information, share concerns and submit citizen proposals. A citizen participation office can be located within the parliament; several offices can also be established in locations outside of the capital to facilitate access to citizens.
Some practical examples are listed below. For a more exhaustive list, please consult the Toolkit on Citizen Participation in the Legislative Process (p.25).
Parliamentary department with a mandate to channel citizen participation through legislative proposals and consultations, and promote educational activities on the role of parliament
Parliamentary unit with a mandate to inform citizens on the work of the Senate, receive citizen opinions and complaints and arrange visits to the Senate
Parliamentary unit whose mission is to develop training activities and promote social participation on political and parliamentary matters of national interest
Responsible actor: Legislators, Parliament
Citizens can be invited as witnesses to appear before Parliamentarians and parliaments can establish partnerships with civil society organizations to receive briefings or workshops hosted by these organizations on their area of expertise, so as to build parliamentary skills and knowledge on a particular subject.
A practical example is listed below.
Projekta, a civil society organization, has held various briefings with Members of the National Assembly on governance topics such as corruption prevention, access to information legislation and gender equality
Responsible actor: Parliament, Committees
Participation level: Involve, Empower
Parliaments can assign the mandate of listening to citizen concerns and disseminating information about new laws to an institutional body. Citizens or representatives of key civil society groups can also be integrated into these bodies on a temporary or permanent basis.
Some practical examples are listed below.
Committee whose mandate is to require transparency of public information; it engages in general meetings, forums, hearings and working meetings with citizens and civil society organizations
Senate includes four members representing: 1) the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Business Bureau; 2) the National Trade Union Congress and Civil Society Steering Committee; 3) the Council of Churches and Evangelical Association of Churches; and
Responsible actor: Parliament
Parliaments can implement institutional public outreach programs to share information about their work with citizens, to undertake in person surveys, and to collect feedback to share with parliamentary committees or in plenary.
A practical example is listed below.
Outreach program where parliamentary staff travel to various locations across the country to speak with citizens and conduct surveys to obtain feedback on the work of parliament; the results are in turn provided to relevant committees
Responsible actor: Legislators, Ministers
Town hall meetings are often held by legislators in their constituencies, or by the Executive, where citizens are invited to participate in a dialogue with legislators and/or public servants to share their concerns and ask questions. Civil Society Organizations can also collaborate to promote attendance and provide support to organize these meetings. The debates can center on general concerns for agenda setting or oversight, or specific legislation according to its stage of development or review. Different methodologies, such as round table discussions, world café and others, can also be applied to provide opportunities for citizens to interact with each other and work towards building consensus on potential legislative solutions.
Some practical examples are listed below.
Town hall meeting held annually by the Prime Minister and Members of the Federal Cabinet to provide an opportunity to citizens to ask questions and receive answers in relation to government policy
Meetings held in departmental (provincial) capitals by initiative of parliamentarians or citizens to present bills, listen and collect input, suggestions or modifications brought forward by citizens
Town hall meetings held in partnership with government to present draft legislation and gather citizens’ feedback to develop additional recommendations, which are then considered by cabinet
Responsible actor: Committees
Parliamentary committees or the Executive can arrange facilitated discussions with demographically diverse focus groups on specific legislative proposals or within the scope of studies on issues of interest. These can help highlight citizens’ main concerns in relation to the issue at hand and gauge public opinion on proposed reforms.
A practical example is listed below.
Ministry of Social Transformation, Local Government and Community Empowerment worked with UN Women to perform an analysis of the Public Assistance Programme using focus groups to propose amendments to relevant legislation
Responsible actor: Committees
Participation level: Involve, Consult
Citizens can be invited as witnesses to appear before committees and provide their input on the subject being debated. This can take place when the committee is developing or reviewing a legislative proposal or performing a study on a priority issue. Witnesses can be proposed by the committee or an open invitation can be made that allows citizens to communicate their interest in appearing as a witness. Due to practical considerations, the committee generally limits and determines the final list of witnesses.
Some practical examples are listed below. For a more exhaustive list, please consult the Toolkit on Citizen Participation in the Legislative Process (p.28).
Citizens are invited to assume the role of a parliamentarian for one day and participate in a committee meeting without voting rights but with time reserved for them to make an intervention
Days for which a theme is assigned by a committee to provide a space for legislators to interact with citizens; each committee must host two Thematic Days within each legislative period
When holding meetings in the form of “town halls”, committees often reserve a period of time during which audience members are given an opportunity to ask questions or make brief comments without having to formally arrange for their appearance
Responsible actor: Cabinet, Parliament
Participation level: Involve, Empower
A citizen jury or assembly consists of a randomly selected and demographically balanced panel of citizens to study an issue in depth, discuss different perspectives on the issue, and recommend a course of action or craft their own solutions to address the issue. Its findings can be binding or not.
Some practical examples are listed below.
Assembly of randomly selected citizens (one from each electoral district) examined the electoral system and provided a recommendation on reform, which was presented in a province-wide referendum
Responsible actor: Legislators
Legislators can set a regular date and time for constituents to drop by their constituency office or to call and share their concerns. Parliaments can also provide legislators a travel budget to allow them to travel between their district and the capital, as well as within their district to reach citizens who are unable to travel to the constituency office through the concept of a “pop-up” constituency office. Parliaments can implement measures to ensure these offices function in a non-partisan manner as an extension of the parliament and not the political party so that they provide a space that is welcoming to all citizens. Some parliaments also designate weeks in which parliamentary work is recessed so parliamentarians can focus on representational duties in their constituency.
Some practical examples are listed below. For a more exhaustive list, please consult the Toolkit on Citizen Participation in the Legislative Process (p.29).
Members of Parliament are provided a budget to establish a constituency office, which must have cross-partisan appeal and be located in an accessible space; budget for sub-offices may also be provided in constituencies with a large, geographically di
Members of Congress are provided with an allowance for personnel, and official office expenses and mail to fulfill their representative duties; funds cannot be used for personal or campaign related expenses
Five business days each month where legislators return to their districts to address complaints and facilitate mediation among citizens and public institutions, as per Standing Orders
Responsible actor: Political Parties, Legislators
Political party conventions can serve different purposes, but usually take place to elect a leader, and to debate and approve policy platforms. Political parties can undertake efforts to increase participation of party members and other citizens in the development of their electoral platforms. Legislators can also hold regular policy meetings in their constituency in collaboration with their constituency association.
A supporting resource is listed below.
National Democratic Institute
Many of the aforementioned forms of citizen participation have been made more accessible through digital mechanisms, and new tools that have been developed to collect and synthesize extensive citizen input, with support of algorithms to identify commonalities among a sea of comments. Digital tools can also be helpful to allow citizens to participate remotely and in some cases anonymously if fear of retaliation is a concern. The following section provides an overview of where digital mechanisms can be helpful within the legislative process.
Responsible actor: Parliament
Parliaments can adopt procedures to manage the receipt of legislative proposals from citizens and their presentation to the plenary. The submission of these proposals through an electronic process can also facilitate information sharing, while co-existing with practices to allow their submission on paper to ensure that the process remains inclusive of citizens with unequal access to digital tools. Such procedures generally include criteria for the presentation of citizen proposals in-plenary sessions, such as requirements for an endorsement by one or more parliamentarians and/or a certain number of supporting signatures by citizens.
Some practical examples are listed below. For a more exhaustive list, please consult the Toolkit on Citizen Participation in the Legislative Process (p.31).
Legislative proposals written by citizens with technical support from the Citizen Participation Office; requires the support of 5% of registered voters for presentation in the Assembly
Legislative proposals written by citizens presented to the National Directorate for the Promotion of Citizen Participation; proposals can either present a subject for regulation along with an explanation or take the form of a bill
Online platform to create electronic petitions that are presented to the House of Commons and tabled for a government response following a process to gain citizen and parliamentary support
Responsible actor: Parliament
Participation level: Involve, Consult
Online portals can be a convenient tool to host various electronic participation mechanisms and to share the work of parliaments in a simple language. The various functions of these platforms allow them to be useful at different stages of the legislative process. To contribute to the agenda setting stage, open forums, online events or chats can be used by citizens to present concerns on any topic and to propose solutions. Crowd sourcing functions can also be integrated to allow for direct contributions to drafting of bills, along with interactive functions that can enable the submission of questions to committees or plenary sessions while they are live streamed. Finally, polling functions can be included for users to provide a vote of opinion on proposed bills or issues.
Some practical examples are listed below. For a more exhaustive list, please consult the Toolkit on Citizen Participation in the Legislative Process (p.32).
Online portal providing a space for citizens to present legislative topics for online discussion or to comment on specific legislative proposals
An experimental open source tool allowing citizens to access a law as it is being written, leave comments, annotate specific content, and interact with other civic-minded participants
Webcasting service that provides live streaming of parliamentary proceedings and allows for citizens to submit questions to committee secretaries during public hearings
Online portal providing citizens with some of the draft bills being debated in the Senate and allowing them to vote on entire bills or on specific aspects of each bill, while submitting comments
Responsible actor: Parliament
Participation level: Involve, Consult
Mobile applications can be a convenient tool to bring various electronic participation mechanisms and information on the work of parliaments to citizens’ fingertips. The various functions of these applications allow them to be useful at different stages of the legislative process. They can host open forums, online events or chats for citizens to present concerns on any topic and propose solutions. They can also be used for livestreaming and provide interactive functions that can enable the submission of questions to committees or plenary sessions. Finally, polling functions can be included for users to provide a vote of opinion on proposed bills or issues.
Some practical examples are listed below.
Mobile application that allows citizens to retrieve and access up to date information on bills, committee proceedings and statistics related to the functioning of the Assembly
Mobile application that allows citizens to retrieve and access up to date information on bills, committee proceedings and statistics related to the functioning of the Assembly
Mobile application that allows citizens to connect with senators, track their attendance, view plenary agendas and bills, live stream sessions, vote on proposed bills, see results in real time and have those results displayed in plenary sessions
Responsible actor: Legislators
Through email and personal websites, legislators can engage in dialogue with constituents on issues of concern, which guide agenda setting or input into specific legislation. This relationship can be more effectively managed with the help of appropriate technology such as case management software.
Some supporting resources are listed below.
Responsible actor: Committees
Citizens can be given the opportunity to submit briefings to committees when they are studying specific issues or bills. This can be helpful if witnesses, specialists or interested persons are not able to physically attend a committee meeting. Briefings can also help support more effective participation by witnesses. Briefings are usually circulated to committee members for discussion in committee, and then become part of permanent records.
A practical example is listed below.
Submissions written by citizens or organizations that provide opinions, comments and recommendations on a subject being studied by a parliamentary committee
Responsible actor: Committees
Online surveys can be a useful tool for committees to obtain citizens’ views in the context of a study, to develop the content of a bill, or to strengthen understanding among legislators about the views of their constituents. Such surveys can also be administered by mail or phone where this is most convenient for citizens.
Some practical examples are listed below.
E-consultation by the Special Committee on Electoral Reform as part of a study
Online surveys developed by the Government of Mexico to obtain citizens’ opinions on priority issues, including topics of pre-draft legislation
Traditional media such as television and radio, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snap Chat also provide avenues for citizen engagement in the legislative process. The following section provides an overview of where specific media can be helpful within the legislative process.
Responsible actor: Legislators, Committees, Parliaments
Participation level: Consult, Involve
The most commonly used social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snap Chat. Legislators can use all of these applications to interact with their constituents online and answer their questions. Facebook Live can be used to hold online “town-halls” that are live streamed, where the legislator can receive comments/questions from citizens in real-time. Polling options can also be used to get a sense of constituents’ views on a particular issue.
Some practical examples are listed below.
ParlAmericas
Custom Facebook applications that allow for the users to access parliamentary information and engage with parliamentarians online
Inter-Parliamentary Union
Responsible actor: Legislators, Committees, Parliaments
Participation level: Consult, Involve
Legislators, on their own behalf or as members of a committee, can participate in television or radio shows where citizens have the opportunity to call in to ask questions and interact with them. These shows can be broadcast on various media outlets or can be hosted by the parliament.
Some practical examples are listed below.
Television and radio program where the President of El Salvador interacts with citizens to discuss issues and national policy. Ministers and public servants often accompany the President to provide accurate answers on relevant matters
Radio station that broadcasts parliamentary sittings live and also hosts programs that allow citizens to call in and provide feedback to the Parliament
The following practices have been submitted by parliamentarians and related stakeholders, and describe techniques that can be applied to:
Opportunities for Citizen Participation in the Legislative Process
