The Invisible Side of Political Participation: E-Participation Mechanisms and Information Management in Latin American Parliaments

Literature Review And Methodology

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (2000), 101 countries had parliament websites available, representing 57% of all parliaments. A survey we conducted in the institution’s website in 2010 shows this rate has increased considerably, with 188 countries already maintaining parliament sites on the Internet¹. From this data, we can agree with other authors, who argue that the central question for research on this issue is not whether parliaments or its members have an online presence, but in which way are they using new technologies and what are its effective impacts on parliamentary activity (Leston-Bandeira, 2007).

While this topic is already widely covered in international literature, it is significantly less present in Latin American literature². Within the general context of international research focused on the impact of new technologies on parliamentary work, we highlight the contributions of Cristina Leston-Bandeira, who proposes a broad analytical structure to investigate the impact of the internet in parliaments that integrates institutional factors, the different roles performed by parliaments and the internal routines of personnel management in legislative institutions (Leston-Bandeira, 2007). In a recent study that featured contributions from both academic researchers and managers of legislative bodies, Leston-Bandeira and Stephen Ward called to attention the need for comparative investigations focused on new democracies undergoing consolidation processes, as well on matters related to the internal dynamics of parliamentary offices (inside approach). Moreover, research should focus not only on the parliamentary offices’ representation role per se, but on the performance of other multiple roles (Leston-Bandeira & Ward, 2008).