As the body through which the people’s interests are expressed, debated and negotiated, parliaments are one of the key institutions at the heart of democracy. At their best, they embody the distinctive democratic attribute of discussion and compromise as a means by which the common interest is realised as greater than the sum of individual or sectional interests. They also make an essential contribution to the integrity of democracy by their ability to mediate in times of tension and conflict and shape public institutions that are responsive to the needs of the entire population.
Unfortunately, parliamentary democracies sometimes give the impression that they are self-serving elites, more responsive to powerful sectional and lobbies than to their own constituents. In such cases it is hardly surprising that many reform movements fail. Correcting this image is largely in the hands of politicians themselves. What this book can do is to offer concerned citizens a more rounded picture of what goes on inside parliaments and of the changes that many of them are instituting so as to become more genuinely representative, accessible and accountable to their electorates and effective in their central tasks of legislation and oversight.
These initiatives include:
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