OPEN LEGISLATIVE DATA IN PARISSESSION 3: ROLL CALL VOTES AND

ACCOUNTABILITY

MIHAIL CHIRU, MARINA POPESCU, CEU BUDAPEST & MRC BUCHAREST

The trap of self-evident statistics: parliamentary monitoring tools in

Romania

Party competition in Romania

Political competition is highly personalized & polarized on symbolic issues

Very limited commitment to policy positions & weak programmatic linkages with citizens

Vote mobilization through clientelistic networks and practices

Ever growing distrust and disengagement from politics

What has been done – existing PMT

‘Alesii voteaza’ www.alesiivoteaza.ro

Very informative (roll-calls; attendance; initiatives) and easy to use.

Emphasis on raw data and quantity – figures are covered uncritically by the media

Need to move further

Our PMT will monitor behavior on policy domains, i.e. linking individual votes/PQ/ bills with the MP’s and the party’s broader position on policy issues

Testvot

• Vote Advice Application

• Present party positions on important issues

• Both at present and retrospectively

• Present party behavior

• Synthesize MPs positions and activities on major policy issues

• Compares them with their campaign pledges and party positions

·Discuss and deliberate salient issues on the agenda (following the Deliberatorium model )

· Crowd-sourcing

Bringing policy back to the core of politics

Helping to Create and Engage Issue Publics

Discussion

portal

Testvot

Issue tracker

MP tracker

Example of using the platform:1. X enters the portal to learn

more about healthcare reform. She starts reading what experts and fellow citizens have to say about it on the debate platform.

2. She can check the current and past positions of the parties on the issue tracker

3. She evaluates her MP’s activities on the matter: both an aggregated policy score and raw data (e.g. roll-call votes)

4. She takes the ‘testvot’ to learn her compatibility on this and other issues with the main parties

MP tracker

It derives legislators’ policy score on major issues from roll-call votes, parliamentary questions and bill initiatives (inspired by the British Public Whip) .

All votes are weighted by importance, parliamentary questions weigh almost as much as votes, while initiatives would weigh the highest of all.

Compares the MPs’ current positions with their policy stances taken up during the electoral campaign (CCS).

Compares the MPs’ positions with the official party standing – scaling techniques – help citizens visualize…

Additional function: keeps track of the MP’s engagement in constituency service (via PQs and bill initiatives)

Thank you for your attention!