The Use of Digital Technology to Assess the Impact of Parliament on the Lawmaking Process

Project Directors :

• Benjamin OOGHE-TABANOU (Research Engeneer at Médialab and Regards Citoyens)
• Olivier ROZENBERG (Associate Professor, Centre d’études européennes)
• Guillaume TUSSEAU (Full Professor, Law School of Sciences Po)

Affiliated Researchers : 

• François BRIATTE (Political Scientist, Assistant Lecturer, ESPOL Lille)
• Jonathan CHIBOIS (Anthropologist, Phd. Candidate, LAIOS, EHESS)
• Paul GIRARD (Technical Director, Médialab, Sciences Po)
• Emiliano GROSSMAN (Political Scientist, Associate Professor, Centre d’études européennes, Sciences Po)
• Charlotte HALPERN (Political Scientist, Research Fellow, Centre d’études européennes, Sciences Po)
• Marc MILET (Political Scientist, Senior Lecturer/maître de conférences HDR, Université Paris II)
• Esther ROGAN (Director of Policy Lab, School of Public Policy, Sciences Po)
• The 8 administrators of the association of Regards Citoyens

This project has obtained funding through the 2016 call for proposals of the LIEPP.

This project aims at assessing the impact of parliamentary work on the lawmaking process by using open, publicly accessible data, data mining, and big data analysis. It will also aim at i) extending and improving its online explorer of the French legislative process; ii) renewing existing assessment methods of the lawmaking process through digital technology and new measurements of how Parliament affect lawmaking; and iii) observing and systematically analysing the processing of legislative amendments.

The project makes a reflexive use of digital technology in order to uncover the most sophisticated aspects of the lawmaking process. In practice, it combines a data-driven Web application with innovative indicators to assess the impact of parliamentary work on both amendments and bills.

The project combines disciplinary insights from law, political science and computer science. It involves universities, software developers, nongovernmental organisations and legislative stakeholders.

Please visit: https://www.lafabriquedelaloi.fr/

Poster of the project - May 2020

Publications:

Olivier Rozenberg, « De la difficulté d’être un Parlement normal » dans La Ve république démystifiée, Presses de Sciences Po, 2019

Olivier Rozenberg, “Monster bills in France”, in Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov (dir.) Onmibus laws, Springer, upcoming.

Associated events:

• Damien Marie “Découvrir la fabrication des lois par la pratique (2018-07-11)” Atelier autour des données parlementaires françaises aux RMLL (Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre) 2018 à Strasbourg
• Summer Program "Parliamentary Democracy in Europe" 8th edition, LUISS School of Government 2018 in Rome : “Parliamentary Elections and Democratic Accountability in the Age of Populism” 
• 27-30 juin 2018 : Workshop in Lyon "Digging into parliamentary data: TheLawFactory.fr 2018 datasprint"
• 7 mars 2018 : Seminar Médialab "LaFabriqueDeLaLoi : GitLaw, le numérique au service du suivi législatif"
• March 23rd 2017 : Joint Seminar LIEPP/Médialab with Dr. Ruth Dixon : Approaches to Understanding the Quality of Legislations
• Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou “TheLawFactory.fr: Tracking the legislative drafting process using new technology & data visualization (2017-10-06)” - The Transformation of Parliamentary Procedures by Technology Innovation, Roundtable on “"ICT and processes of political representation" at the Inaugural Confererence of the Master EUPADRA (Joint Master in Parliamentary Procedures and Legislative Drafting, Erasmus+ Programme, European Commission) 2017, Rome 
• Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou “TheLawFactory.fr: A git and dataviz approach to parliamentary bill-tracking (2016-04-27)” Conférence TICTeC (The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference) 2016 à Barcelone 

In the media:

• Les parlementaires font-ils la loi ? on France Culture of 23/07/2018.
• Fabrique de la loi : recours massif à la procédure accélérée ces dernières années, article in Acteur publics of 25/04/2018.
• Les députés LREM, ces mauvais employeurs, article in Mediacités of 15/10/2018.
• Anne-France Brunet, députée et employeur à la sauce “start-up nation”, article in Mediacités-Nantes of 15/10/2018.
• Turnover des assistants parlementaires à l’Assemblée nationale : comme dans une entreprise de services, article in The Conversation of 16/10/2018.
• Les députés, des employeurs comme les autres ? Le turnover des collaborateurs en données, article on the website RegardsCitoyens.org,16/10/2018.