Analyzing and examining the concept, dimensions and indicators of transparency in the legislature with a comparative approach

Subject Areas : علوم سیاسی

Samad Hedayati Khalili ¹ , Reza Simbar ²

1 - Department of Political Science & international Relations, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Political Science, University of Guilan, Guilan, Iran

Received: 2022-06-10 Accepted : 2022-08-20 Published : 2022-08-30

Keywords: Legislature, Parliamentary transparency, components of transparency, parliamentary information, behavioral principles of representatives,

Abstract :

The legislative body in the Islamic Republic of Iran is the Islamic Council, which carries the important task of legislating and supervising the implementation of law. Important policies of the government are determined by the Islamic Council and governments are obliged to implement them. In this regard, it should be kept in mind that the Islamic Council is an institution emanating from the people, in fact, it is the crystallization of the views and demands of the general society. Therefore, the application of maximum transparency-oriented policies is one of the necessities of every parliament. In this article with the title "Analysis and review of the concept, dimensions and indicators of transparency in the legislature with a comparative approach" and with the aim of identifying and analyzing the main elements of transparency in the legislature by using the experiences and approaches of some successful countries in This context was carried out with a descriptive and analytical method and by using library sources and texts. The results showed that the transparency of the legislative branch emphasizes the right of the people to access the information of this branch and tries to provide functional information of the parliament and representatives. to provide the ground for monitoring the behavior of the representatives and their performance by the people and also to ensure their participation in the legislative affairs.Six elements of transparency in the legislature, including "identity and expense information of representatives", "information on the presence and absence of representatives", "distribution of information, gifts, benefits and lobbying of representatives", "information on employees, programs, orders and meetings of commissions and public forum of the Parliament", "dissemination of information, opinions, budgets and expenses of the legislature", "the presence of a platform for people's participation in the legislative process and in-person access" and "the existence of behavioral principles". Transparency is one of the tools of popular monitoring of the legislature and influencing the decision-making process in countries, and it can prepare the platform for transformation in the field of legislation and be an opportunity to start structural reforms in different parts of the society.