Mind the Gap: Political Analysis, Public Expectations and the Parliamentary Decline Thesis

Flinders, Matthew; Kelso, Alexandra

doi:10.1111/j.1467-856x.2010.00434.x

Cited by 55 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Parliaments combine a number of characteristics that make them particularly difficult institutions to defend. In a context of public discourse that reinforces the idea of voter apathy and mistrust of politicians, and where parliaments have come to personify all that is bad about politics, they have also become a key institution to defend (Flinders, 2010;Flinders and Kelso, 2011;Riddell, 2011). But the fact that they are highly visible, accountable and collective institutions make them particularly vulnerable institutions in terms of public image, which has consequences into the development of public engagement activities.…”

Section: Parliament -An Institution Destined To Be Unlovedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pursuit of Legitimacy as a Key Driver for Public Engagement: The European Parliament Case

Leston‐Bandeira

2012

Parliamentary Affairs

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Political disengagement and declining trust have become main areas of concern for parliaments in Europe, leading to a considerable reinforcement of public engagement activities. The European Parliament is a prime example of an institution where the need to strengthen the link with citizens became a key priority, in particular following the Lisbon Treaty's reinforcement of the parliament's powers and visibility. This article analyses the decision-making processes this Parliament has put in place to meet the public engagement agenda. It is mainly based on elite interviews with officials and representatives. We show that political will was key to move forward the public engagement agenda, and that new media has become a core element of this strategy.Key words: public engagement; trust in parliament; European Parliament; internet and parliament.Faced with rising levels of p o l i t i c a l d i s e n g a g e m e n t a n d a c c u s a t i o n s o f l a c k o f t r a n s p a r e n c y , parliaments across Europe have considerably reinforced their public engagement activities over the last decade, with many embedding this dimension into their overall strategies. As parliamentary public engagement has grown, the literature has started to analyse the effectiveness of the outputs produced by parliaments, such as petition systems or simply parliamentary websites. Namely, studies have assessed over a decade now the effectiveness of parliamentary websites as a public engagement tool, in the possibilities of information and interaction these offer (Norris, 2001;Trechsel et al, 2003;Setälä and Grönlund, 2006; Global Centre for ICT, 2008Griffith and Leston-Bandeira, 2012; J os hi and Ros enf i el d, 2013), with many more s t udi es f ocus i ng on t he effectiveness of individual MPs' websites (e.g. Zittel, 2003;Ward and Lusoli, 2005;Chappelet and Kilchenmann, 2006;Vicente-Merino, 2007;Francoli and Ward, 2008;Jackson, 2008). In this article we propose instead to analyse the processes in place that lead to the decisions behind public engagement outputs, such as a parliamentary website. Adopting the European Parliament as our case study, we explore the processes in place to support the development of public engagement and its inherent challenges. Whilst some of the literature has considered the structures in place to move forward the engagement agenda (Kelso, 2007;Leston-Bandeira, 2007b;De Rosa, 2009;Clark and Wilford, 2012; Walker 2012), we still need to understand better what processes lead to the development of public engagement, to ascertain who takes decisions regarding the format of public 2 engagement, the inherent challenges and what this can teach us in terms of developing effective public engagement. It is important in particular to identify the challenges in place to be able to set realistic expectations; but also to identify enablers of effective implementation of public engagement.Focusing on the output of a parliamentary website, we enquire into the decision-making process in place behind the decisions made ...

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Section: Parliament -An Institution Destined To Be Unlovedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pursuit of Legitimacy as a Key Driver for Public Engagement: The European Parliament Case

Leston‐Bandeira

2012

Parliamentary Affairs

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“…Some argue that attempts by governments to increase their control over communication is partially a reaction to media irresponsibility, because the media frequently misrepresents the political sphere (Wodak, 2011) and focuses on scandal and negativity over everyday government business (Fairbanks et al, 2007). This comes ironically at a time when, according to some commentators, government is performing better than ever in many liberal democracies (Davis, 2009a;Flinders and Kelso, 2011).…”

Section: Notes Thatmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This perception produces a situation where the 'everyday' functioning of government is not actually 'news', with higher news value attached to controversial issues and political scandals; a situation hardly unique to Northern Ireland but nevertheless lamented and viewed as problematic for current democratic institutions (Flinders and Kelso, 2011;Wodak, 2011).…”

Section: He [The Gio] Wouldn't You Know Ruthlessly Push the Agenda…mentioning

confidence: 99%

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Rice

Somerville

2013

Public Relations Review

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1 Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-Press relationships in NorthernIreland's developing democratic institutions. AbstractNorthern Ireland's democratic governance is consociational (i.e. power-sharing is mandatory) and therefore substantially different from the majoritarian electoral system which characterises most Western democratic societies. Consociationalism has been advocated as a form of democracy which can reconcile post-conflict societies fragmented along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines. Political public relations within mandatory coalitions has received little attention from scholars to date. Drawing on data from elite interviews with Government Information Officers (GIOs), Ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds) and journalists in Northern Ireland, this paper analyses their perspectives on political public relations in Northern Ireland's evolving democratic institutions. Our findings suggest Northern Ireland's public sphere is characterised not just by the usual contest between government communicators and journalists over political stories, but also by competition across government departments and within departments between GIOs and SpAds. Our research investigates the role of public relations in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions and more generally identifies important issues surrounding government communication in post-conflict power-sharing democracies.

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“…Finally, once it becomes clear that the UK Government does not have the capacity to meet some of the expectations set by prominent politicians from the Leave campaign, there is a risk that citizens will become even more disillusioned with the political system (Flinders and Kelso, 2011). If this is combined with a potential economic downturn, it could lead to civil unrest, increasingly hostile attitudes to foreigners and growing antipathy towards those in authority.…”

Section: The Aftermath Of Brexit: a Sting In The Tail?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Debate: Freedom, power and capacity—analysing the fallout from the UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum

Ferry

Eckersley

2016

Public Money & Management

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Mind the Gap: Political Analysis, Public Expectations and the Parliamentary Decline Thesis

Cited by 55 publications

References 39 publications

The Pursuit of Legitimacy as a Key Driver for Public Engagement: The European Parliament Case

The Pursuit of Legitimacy as a Key Driver for Public Engagement: The European Parliament Case

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Debate: Freedom, power and capacity—analysing the fallout from the UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum

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