Search

Historically, conducting elections during wartime has been a rare and complex endeavor. While some countries have managed to hold elections despite active conflicts, most have chosen to postpone elections until conditions allow for a free, fair, and secure electoral process.

Legislatures are vital institutions at the heart of any democracy. They not only enact laws and approve budgets, but also act as representative and deliberative assemblies, and as bodies that scrutinize and oversee the actions of the executive. In order to perform these functions effectively, legislatures need to be organized, in terms of their internal leadership, their committee structures, and the rules by which they transact public business.

This Discussion Paper reviews the performance of 16 lobbying registers according to 3 interlinked dimensions: (a) transparency; (b) regulatory capacity; and (c) interoperability. Under ‘transparency’, the paper examines the scope of lobbying information collected by the register in question, as well as how that information is administered and subsequently disclosed.

On 1 December 2023, International IDEA’s Council of Member States, chaired by the Netherlands, unanimously approved a membership request from France. The country joins the intergovernmental organization as its 35th Member State. France’s membership comes with a strong message of support for the Institute’s work, including a foreseen core contribution of 500,000 EUR for 2024 to back the Institute’s operations and knowledge production.