Successful draft laws, committee staffing and distribution of speaking time to women and men: new knowledge from Parliament data

Successful draft laws, committee staffing and distribution of speaking time to women and men: new knowledge from Parliament data

Parliament has made data available for further use to the public. This data is already used by experts to examine various aspects of parliamentary work. For example, a team of researchers from the University of Vienna has analyzed the committee work of the past five years and found that many MPs are represented in several committees.

An interesting finding is that there are many thematic overlaps in the occupation of the committees. For example, the financial and budget committee has 75% of the same staffing. This shows that certain topics and tasks in parliament are processed at the same time by many MPs.

The cooperation with the University of Vienna has also shown how draft laws have changed over time. In the past, most legal decisions were based on government templates. However, more and more independent applications have been brought in and decided since 2019. This could indicate that the MPs act more independently of the government and bring in their own initiatives.

Another analysis result concerns the control function of the National Council. The data show that written inquiries are mainly used by the opposition. The FPÖ has made most written inquiries in the past. This underlines the importance of these inquiries as an instrument for reviewing the government activity.

A gender analysis of the written inquiries shows that female MPs provide their inquiries above average on the subjects of women, families and generations. Male MPs, on the other hand, bring in inquiries about topics such as national defense, transport, infrastructure and finance.

It is remarkable that this data is accessible to everyone. Every visitor to the Parliament website can access the data records offered, which range from legal applications to committee reports and information about individual MPs. Parliament wants to create transparency and promote the interest of the public in parliamentary work.

The web portal of the parliament is available for further information and the use of the data. The analysis of this data can gain interesting insights that can contribute to improving the democratic process.

Source: www.parlament.gv.at .