Research project
Developing Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments
- Start date: 3 June 2024
- End date: 31 July 2025
- Funding: Financial support of the European Union as part of the Inter Pares I Parliaments in Partnership project, implemented by International IDEA
- Value: £80k
- Partners and collaborators: Inter Pares I Parliaments in Partnership project, implemented by International IDEA
- Primary investigator: Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira
- Postgraduate students: Juliet Ollard (on secondment from the House of Commons Select Committee Engagement Team)
At a time of declining trust in politics, meaningful citizen engagement is more important than ever. Yet, resources that outline effective ways for parliaments to engage with the public remain limited.
This series of eight interactive Guides is designed to support parliaments develop effective practice.
It draws on extensive research on a wide range of citizen engagement activities from across the world, including interviews with parliamentary officials and academics working at the cutting edge of public engagement.
The project developed a suite of eight guides, on key topics:
- Principles of Parliamentary Public Engagement
- Petitions and Citizens' Initiatives
- Youth Engagement
- Education Programmes
- Public Consultations
- Deliberative Engagement
- Parliament as a Space and Place
- Engaging Underrepresented Groups
Project aims
This project aimed to both understand parliament's core challenges in facilitating effective citizen engagement, and to address these by developing high quality evidence-based knowledge resources, which provide practical guidance for parliamentary staff and MPs from across the world. The Guides produced aimed to suit a wide range of contexts, from large to smaller institutions, to better resourced institutions to those with fewer resources, form a wide range of types of political systems.
Publications and outputs
General page with information about project.
Each of the guides can be accessed from the project website, but also have their own page (three are still due to be published):
- Principles of Parliamentary Public Engagement
- Petitions and Citizens’ Initiatives
- Youth Engagement
- Education Programmes
- Public Consultations
- Deliberative Engagement
- Parliament as a Space and Place
- Engaging Underrepresented Groups
Other outputs include:
IPEN seminar ‘Developing Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments’ accessed here.
Podcast that discusses specifically the ‘Guide on Parliament as a Space and Place’ accessed here.
Article for The Parliamentarian, the magazine of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association accessed here.