PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

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A parliament that is open and transparent I 61 As the current information from our parliamentary respondents shows, their websites are continually being developed in response to user feedback and user priorities. For example, the activity of the Italian Senate and its staff ‘has been strongly influenced by the added push coming from the web: constituents increasingly want to email their elected representatives and find out on line how he or she voted and what opinion he or she expressed on specific issues.’ In Australia, the online summary of the week’s business in the House of Representatives has proved particularly popular. In Latvia, the Saeima’s database containing the full text of draft laws has enjoyed the most use ‘because every citizen can follow the development process of the draft law he or she is interested in.’ However, the Latvian communication also draws attention to the limits on accessibility. Not every citizen can use this facility in practice. When we talk about involving the public in strengthening democracy, we should not rely on information and communication technologies (ICT) too much. We have to take into consideration that the current availability of personal computers and, in particular, the availability of and access to the Internet is not as evenly distributed and as broad as we would like. A knowledge society is not about the availability of knowledge on the Internet or elsewhere, but about maximally even distribution of knowledge among the citizens, thus enabling democratic processes……A true expression of democracy is to let every person choose the form of communication that is more convenient for and accessible to him or her.’ The figures provided in this communication for the levels of Internet use in Latvia reinforce this caution: only 24% of the population had used it in the previous six months; only 47% of public libraries had access to the Internet and 71% of schools. If this is the situation for a European country, then how much more is it true of many developing countries in the South. While access to ICT, therefore, enormously increases the range and speed of communication possibilities for its users, by the same token it also intensifies the inequalities between users and non-users. Table 3.2 shows the huge inequalities between the world’s regions in access to the Internet. Within the low access regions and countries we must also assume a huge gulf between those with access and those without. One way of bridging this gap is through a system of ‘cascading’, whereby information is disseminated in electronic form to local agencies (constituency offices, community centres, etc.) and thence by more traditional means to wider sections of the population. Nor should we overlook the use of other new technologies, which are not covered by the figures in the table. For example, Africa currently has the fastest growth in mobile phone
62 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY use of any continent, albeit from a low base; in 2005 there were six times as many mobile users as users of the Internet. Figure 3.2: Internet usage statistics WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATIONS STATISTICS Internet % Popu- Usage World Population Population Usage lation Usage Growth regions (2005 Est.) % of World Latest Data (Penetration) % of World 2000-2005 Africa 915,210,928 14.1% 22,737,500 2.5% 2.2% 403.7% Asia 3,667,774,066 56.4% 364,270,713 9.9% 35.7% 218.7% Europe 807,289,020 12.4% 290,121,957 35.9% 28.5% 176.1% Middle East 190,084,161 2.9% 18,203,500 9.6% 1.8% 454.2% North America Latin America/ 331,473,276 5.1 % 225,801,428 68.1% 22.2% 108.9% Caribbean Oceania/ 553,908,632 8.5 % 79,033,597 14.3% 7.8% 337.4% Australia 33,956,977 0.5 % 17,690,762 52.9% 1.8% 132.2% World Total 6,499,697,060 100.0 % 1,018,057,389 15.7% 100.0% 182.0% Source: Internet World Statistics, Internet Usage Statistics: The Big Picture Notes: Internet Usage and World Population Statistics were updated for December 31, 2005. Demographic (Population) numbers are based on data contained in the world-gazetteer website . Internet usage information comes from data published by Nielsen//NetRatings, by the International Telecommunications Union, by local NICs, and other sources. ©Copyright 2006, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved. Taking parliament to the people Many parliaments have dedicated centres for information and education in the parliament building for organised visits and individual visitors. The Italian Chamber of Deputies, for example, in May 2005 inaugurated a multi-functional and multi-media centre of information in its building, open every day, where visitors can follow parliamentary proceedings on screen, access information on parliament through a variety of media, and engage in systematic
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strengthening of both legislative a
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Australia Austria Belarus Belgium B
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Organization’s programmes aimed a
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MS. MARTA LAGOS CRUZ-COKE Executive
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MS. DULCE MARIA SAURI RIANCHO Membe
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Non-governmental organisations Cent
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types of, 8, 15-17, 69 voter partic
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