PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

nation’s legislators last in perception of trustworthiness in a list of
twenty-three professional groups.
Most public disquiet has focused on financial matters, and in particular on
the use of legislators’ position to advance their own personal economic interests,
or the interests of individuals and organisations which they are being
rewarded in some way to represent. Other concerns include levels of attendance,
the use of privileged information and the misuse of parliamentary
allowances.
It should be said that rules of conduct for parliamentarians have always
existed, though these have typically been confined to conduct affecting the
good order of parliamentary business itself. Thus there are standard prohibitions
in almost all parliaments on speech or behaviour which insults or
intimidates another member; which obstructs the freedom of debate or voting;
or which shows disrespect to the institution or its presiding officer. In addition
to such matters of internal order and decorum, it has always been understood
as a principle and taken for granted that parliamentarians are elected to serve
a public interest, rather than personal or private ones. What is relatively recent
has been the need felt by many parliaments to make this principle explicit in
a published set of norms and a public code of conduct, which will enhance
confidence externally in the integrity of parliament. The typical purposes of
such a code are clearly set out in the preamble to the Canadian Code of
Official Conduct:
1. to recognize that service in Parliament is a public trust;
A parliament that is accountable I 99
2. to maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of parliamentarians
individually and the respect and confidence that society
places in Parliament as an institution;
3. to assure the public that all parliamentarians are held to standards
that place the public interest ahead of parliamentarians’ private
interests and to provide a transparent system by which the public
may judge this to be the case;
4. to provide for greater certainty and guidance for parliamentarians
in how to reconcile their private interests with their public duties;
5. to foster consensus among parliamentarians by establishing common
rules and by providing the means by which questions relating
to proper conduct may be answered by an independent, non-partisan
advisor.