Process Modelling and Knowledge Management in the Legislative Process

1. Process Modelling and Knowledge Managementin the Legislative Process Günther Schefbeck ECPRD Seminar „Digitisation of Parliamentary Information and Archives“ Part 1 Brussels, 30 May 2002

2. A legal enactment ... traditional style

3. Legislative Processes • Complex and multi-layered • Highly formalized legal procedure (going back to 19th century) vs. • Informal political decision-making process (semi-structured or negotiation process) • Interaction of political and legal layers

4. The value of legislative processes • “A business process is a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of inputs and creates an output that is of value to the customer” (Hammer & Champy) • What is the value of a law?

5. The value of laws • Individual law: quality of content • Rule of law: quality of justice (Aristotle: “Under the rule of law the chances for justice are better than under the rule of men”) • Law produced in a democratic process: quality of legitimation (Luhmann: “legitimization by procedure”)

6. Rule of law in a democratic system • Knowledge of laws as a prerequisite for acceptance of laws and law enforcement • Transparency of the legislative process as a prerequisite for the acceptance of this process and its output • Crucial function of publicity of laws and legislative processes

7. Transparency and democracy Means of parliamentary transparency • public access to (plenary!) meetings • media coverage • print documentation are as young as democracy (or even younger: early 19th century) and have been given a new quality through the NICT in the 1990s

8. The IT impact • 1970s: law documentation (mainframes) • 1980s: documentation of legislative processes (mainframes … PCs) • 1990s: electronic availability of data (metadata, full texts of documents, audio/video streaming) to the general public (PCs … Internet) • Today: “electronification” of legislative processes • Tomorrow: ?

9. Legislative processes and E-business/government functions • Information • Communication • Transaction • Communication and transaction functions have been made large-scale available through the Internet and Intranet applications

10. Five steps of electronic support of legislative processes • Knowledge management • Workflow management • Improving the procedural quality • Improving the output quality • Improving the participatory quality

11. Process modelling • Knowledge management: descriptive modelling (reduction of complexity) • Workflow management: descriptive/prescriptive modelling (complex legal and administrative procedure) • Future development: prescriptive modelling/process re-engineering (changing the legislative process, e.g. by introducing new instruments/steps)?

12. Present situation –functional variety • Plain information systems • Mixed systems combining information with aspects of communication/transaction • Fully electronic workflow systems

13. Present situation –organizational variety • Isolated systems of single parliamentary chambers • Overall systems of (bicameral) Parliaments • Integrated systems of all organs involved in the legislative process

14. Example: Switzerland (1) • Workflow system introduced in 1998 • Electronic production of all legislative documents • System and format breach: Parliament • Authenticity: paper document

15. Example: Switzerland (2) • Functional view: electronic workflow system with derived information function, parliamentary information and production systems • Organizational view: government system, Parliament involved as a “black box”

16. Example: Austria (1) • Workflow system operational since 1 January 2002 • Electronic production and transfer of all legislative documents • System (but not format) breach: Parliament • Authenticity: paper document/at least as to publication from 1 January 2003 on electronic document

17. Example: Austria (2) • Functional view: electronic workflow system, governmental section using the existing Legal Information System as archival system, parliamentary section based on the existing Parliamentary Documentation System • Organizational view: separated government and Parliament systems with interfaces

18. Example: Austria (3-5) Way of federal legislation (simplified organizational view) Federal Minister Federal Government Parliament Federal President Federal Chancellor

19. Process steps Legal enactment Government bill Proposal to the Council of Ministers Authentication LIS Consultation Publication Federal Minister Federal Government Parliament Federal President Federal Chancellor

20. Electronic workflow system LIS Federal Minister Federal Government Parliament Federal President Federal chancellor

21. Improving the procedural quality • Process modelling makes aware of capability of improvement • Necessary amendment of rules of procedure (shift of paradigm towards autheticity of electronic documents) gives opportunity to improve procedures

22. Improving the output quality • Legimatic systems for improving the formal quality of laws (checking the implementation of or implementing guidelines for legislation) • Impact assessment and simulation systems for improving the material quality of legislation

23. Improving the participatory quality • Already emerging standard solution: introducing new communication tools into the representative system • Dichotomy indirect vs. direct democracy? • Visionary concepts for intermediate democracy models … the discussion is opened