As the internet has further infiltrated their citizen’s lives and access to digital information has increased, governments have begun to provide greater transparency as to their activities through the web. The most common method of doing this for legislatures is through legislative information systems and legislative websites.
These sites have many functions, but they mostly serve as a way for the legislature to share information with constituents on their day to day activities. Typically, these sites are completely non-partisan and only serve as a way to provide transparency and give people information. For a partisan view of the legislature’s activities, most of the party caucuses will have a separate webpage that espouses their views on the legislation that has passed or is being considered.
The type of information mostly shown on these sites includes bill tracking, legislative history, and legislative agendas. They also have information on the composition of committees, meeting agendas, and meeting schedules. Most states also feature audio and video webcasts of floor proceedings. Many also archive floor proceedings from previous days. There are also typically live and archived webcasts of committee hearings.
One area where the state is ahead of the game is with its feature of email subscriptions for bill tracking. This allows people to follow the legislature’s activities in a very passive manner. There is no need to go to the state’s website to become informed on the issues facing the state, and how the legislature is responding to them.
Generally, the development of these sites has greatly increased the amount of transparency in government which is typically seen as a positive. With the multimedia options on the sites, constituents have an unprecedented amount of information on the daily activities of their legislature, as most of the necessary information on pending legislation is easily displayed on these sites. The effectiveness of legislation information services has led to widespread adoption across the states.
Delaware’s legislative website is easy to navigate, but it lacks many of the enhanced features of other states. Like 48 other states, Delaware has live webcasts of floor proceedings for the House of Representatives, but not the Senate. The state does is one of only 17 states to not have archived webcasts of floor proceedings, one of only 15 states to not have live broadcasts of committee meetings, and one of 27 states to not have archived webcasts of committee hearings. Furthermore, 30 states have television broadcasts, Delaware does not.
While there is a lot of information available on the site, adding many of these features would greatly enhance the website’s quality. Hopefully they will look into adopting many of these features, but there is little hope for it in the near future. Many of these things would have significant costs associated with them. The technology needed would come at a pretty steep price, and with state finances as tight as they are, it is difficult to pass legislation that costs the state extra money.
Sources:
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2011, February 21). Bill Tracking and Subscription Services on Legislative Websites. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from NCSL: http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=13474
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2011, March 2). Webcasts of Live Floor Proceedings and Committees. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from NCSL: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://funnymail.com/sites/funnymail.com/files/imagecache/blogroll-image/230737_2019864581448_1388912077_32333882_2759560_n.jpg&imgrefurl=http://funnymail.com/category/tags/osama&usg=__aYdpbfsv5APohTHue3DWIy5wctc=&h=286
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