Beyond national boundaries in the study of digital public engagement: Interparliamentary institutions and cooperation in the Austrian and Portuguese national parliaments

Abstract

This study assesses the role of interparliamentary institutions (IPIs) and networks in the diffusion of new ideas and solutions of (digital) public engagement in national parliaments by using elite semistructured interviews from two case studies, Austria and Portugal. Evidence collected shows that both parliaments are strongly relying on IPIs to develop and implement digital public engagement activities to stay informed, eliminate the possibility of failure, reduce the administrative costs and uncertainty of IT planning and new experiences, and comply with standards of what is perceived to be a legitimate parliament. By showing that IPIs are vehicles of (digital) public engagement diffusion—parliaments learn from and emulate other parliaments perceived as successful through these institutions—this study has significant implications for our understanding of public engagement as well as of interparliamentary cooperation.