Several civil society organisations in Slovenia have developed a portal to make legislative processes more transparent for citizens.
Called "Zakonodajni monitor" (Legislative Monitor), this platform was initiated by Transparency International Slovenia, Institute Jozef Stephan and virostatiq.com.
Basically, this project intends to provide a comprehensive IT solution to give insight into the legislative process in the country, and the involvement of lobbyists in the public decision-making process, which the portal calls the “legislative footprint”.
“With the portal, we want to show that IT tools can be a graphically attractive way to show citizens how legislation is adopted, that anyone can affect the content of laws and how deputies vote in the National Assembly", the website notes.
Increase transparency through data visualisation
Zakonodajni Monitor allows citizens, journalists, NGOs, scientists and think tanks to follow the formation of a law through graphical data visualisation (including a timeline) and analysis. In order to increase transparency, the platform also provides information on members of the National Assembly, such as voting statistics, MPs' voting behaviour and how they attend voting sessions. For example, MPs can be pinpointed on a map, according to the region they represent. Lobbying contacts are also taken into account.
Data regarding the process of adopting laws, voting and MPs’ presence are extracted from the website of the National Assembly. Other information is collected from the national information system and from the NIO portal dealing with interoperability. Data on lobbying contacts are provided by the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. Information on the violation of the Resolution on Normative Activities is obtained from the Counter Infringement site, added the portal.