europe

Building Global Democracy

The Building Global Democracy Programme explores how ‘rule by and for the people’ can be understood and practised in relation to global issues. How can democracy be meaningful in today’s more global world? How can affected people participate in and control the governance of global concerns such as climate change, financial crises, health challenges, human rights, internet communications, security problems, and trade?

Launched in 2008, the Building Global Democracy Programme brings together interested academic researchers, civil society activists, entrepreneurs, journalists and officials from all world regions. Our projects cover issues such as: rethinking democracy for a global age; citizen learning for global democracy; including the excluded in global policymaking; resource redistribution for global equity; and intercultural constructions of legitimate global governance.

The BGD Programme is facilitated and coordinated through a convening group of ten persons based in ten world regions. Our administrative office is located in the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick. Core funding is provided with a generous grant from the Ford Foundation.

Website: http://www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org

OpeningParliament.org

Parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) are working to create strong, open and accountable parliaments, through enhancing citizen participation in the legislative process and bringing parliaments closer to the people they represent. OpeningParliament.org provides a forum for international collaboration on efforts to improve access to parliamentary information and share experiences and good practices among PMOs. It also serves as the home of the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, a set of shared principles on the openness, transparency and accessibility of parliaments developed by the international PMO community.

OpeningParliament.org and the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness are outcomes of a conference of PMOs co-hosted by the National Democratic Institute, the Sunlight Foundation, and Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency, in Washington, D.C. The conference, held from April 30-May 2, 2012, brought together PMOs from 38 countries worldwide to facilitate discussion of international strategies for improving access to useable parliamentary information and sharing good practices in advocating for parliamentary transparency and in monitoring parliamentary performance.

The gathering was supported by the Omidyar Network, the Open Society Foundations, the National Endowment for Democracy, the World Bank Institute and the Embassy of Mexico to the United States. For more information, please see a full conference agenda and links to presentations, and the joint press release issued at the conclusion of the conference.

Website: http://www.openingparliament.org

Parties and Elections in Europe

Parties and Elections in Europe provides a comprehensive database about the parliamentary elections in the European countries and autonomous subdivisions since 1945 and additional informations about the political parties, the electoral systems, the acting political leaders, the governments and the electoral laws. The parties are characterised according to their political orientation. The website also contains an electoral calendar, news in brief and links to parties and election authorities. The database currently contains the results of legislative elections from all European countries and more than 100 subdivisions. Use the menu bar to find every listed country, region or province.

Website: http://www.parties-and-elections.de

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide.

International IDEA’s mission is to support sustainable democratic change by providing comparative knowledge, and assisting in democratic reform, and influencing policies and politics. What does International IDEA do? In the field of elections, constitution building, political parties, gender in democracy and women’s political empowerment, democracy self-assessments, and democracy and development, we undertake our work through three activity areas:

• Providing comparative knowledge derived from practical experience on democracy building processes from diverse contexts around the world;
• Assisting political actors in reforming democratic institutions and processes, and engaging in political processes when invited to do so; and
• Influencing democracy building policies through the provision of our comparative knowledge resources and assistance to political actors.

Where does International IDEA work? International IDEA works worldwide. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, it has offices in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Website: http://www.idea.int