Open Legislation
8
Open Legislation Fraser Henderson www.mrhenderson.org
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Transcript of Open Legislation
The public are perfectly capable of making sense of
complex questions
Lawmakers are not necessarily expert on the issues on which they are deciding or
debating
Active listening Pre-consultation Formal
consultation
Votes and
referenda
Civil society
governance
What do the public
think about
current legislation?
Who are the key
influencers and
where do they
congregate?
Do we need new or
revised legislation
for a given issue?
What is current
sentiment about an
issue or law?
What does the
public think about
the policy options?
Are there any
policy ideas?
Should we pass a
new law?
What proportion of
resources should
we allocate?
What are the
public concerns?
Are we
accountable?
Chinalaw.gov.cn
All draft legislation since 2009Over 100 laws published & over 400 departmental rulesSome >100,000 comments
90-9-1 web rule applies
1. Online public feedback on all legislation should be default position
2. A clear consultation mandate is needed for each exercise (who/why/when/what happens?)
3. The feed-forward of public comments to Parliamentarians is critical. Practitioners need better qualitative data analysis tools to make sense of feedback.
4. Public feedback needs to be heard . The concept of a ‘public reading day’ or ‘public reading half-hour’ is yet to be tested in the United Kingdom but dedicated time for Parliamentarians to consider or hear public feedback is theoretically a good idea.
5. More pre-consultation is needed. Public dialogue on emerging policy issues would help policymakers ensure that draft legislation was more considered in the beginning, pre-draft. Merits of bill different to technicalities of it.
No Public Feedback = Narrow views = Poor Legislation
Public Feedback + No Change – Reasons = No hope + No point
Public Feedback + No Participants = No effort / No trust
Public Feedback + Change = Impact + Better Legislation
