Petitioning the Scottish Parliament: Two Decades of Public Participation in the Post-Devolution Era
In Scotland, petitioning Parliament has deep historical roots dating back to the 14th century. Then in 1999, one of the key initiatives launched when the Scottish Parliament was reconvened to embody its founding principles was the creation of a petitioning system including e-petitioning features for...
Shranjeno v:
| izdano v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/erea, |
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| Glavni avtor: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Anglais |
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E-rea
2026
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| Teme: | |
| Online dostop: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Izvleček: | In Scotland, petitioning Parliament has deep historical roots dating back to the 14th century. Then in 1999, one of the key initiatives launched when the Scottish Parliament was reconvened to embody its founding principles was the creation of a petitioning system including e-petitioning features for the first time in the world. As a pioneer of parliamentary e-petitioning and a symbol of a commitment to doing politics differently, the Scottish petition system was the object of regular parliamentary assessment and academic analysis. However, as the novelty of the system waned, so did political and scientific scrutiny. Consequently, recent work on the Scottish petition system is scarce and no diachronic and comprehensive overview of its evolution up to the contemporary period exists. The present article seeks to address this gap by analysing petition data released by parliamentary services through text mining. It deals with the period ranging from the setting up of the system by the Dewar government in 1999 to the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon in March 2023, and focuses more specifically on the volume of submissions and signatures of petitions over that period, petitioners and organisations making use of the system, contents of petitions and topical categories, petition popularity, and finally response to petitions. |
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