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National survey on the work of the Parliament – 2014

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The Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” Skopje (IDSCS) in the period 15 May to 15 June 2014, within the EU-funded project ‘Parliament watch!  Strengthening the political debate and deliberative discourse’ conducted a national field survey about the perceptions of citizens for the work of the Sobranie.

The survey was conducted face to face on 1000 respondents, taking into account gender, age, ethnic, educational and spatial specifics of the population. 
Some of the key findings of the survey in relation to the work of the Assembly are: 
• 48.9% of respondents considered that the MP of their constituency is not available for meetings with citizens and 40.2% that is available. 
• 54.7% of respondents believe that lawmakers failed to inform citizens about their job, and 31% that the MPs inform the voters about their activities 
• 50.4% believe that the debate between the majority and opposition contributes in creating better laws, and 38% have the opposite view. 
• 78.5% believe that Parliamentary committees should oversee the implementation of laws by the ministries. 
• 52.6% believe that lawmakers in some cases use improper language in debates, and 30.8% said that lawmakers do that often. 
• 46.4% believe that lawmakers rarely explain their views and positions with arguments in debates, and 29.5% responded that that happens often. 
In terms of expectations from the new composition of Parliament, some of the key findings are: 
• 88.5% of respondents believe that the new parliament should pay more attention to the quality of legislation. 
• 82.4% think that the new composition of the Assembly should increase the control of the Government. 
• 76.5% believe that the majority in parliament should be more responsive to the views of the opposition. 
• 75.4% think that the new composition of Parliament should be more active in proposing and drafting legislation. 
The project “Parliament watch! Strengthening the political debate and deliberative discourse” aims to measure the extent and quality of argumentation in parliamentary debates. Within the project trained observers will perform 10 month monitoring of the debate in eight parliamentary committees and plenary sessions.

The basic tool for assessing the quality of debate will be the Discourse Quality Index (DQI) which has been used in similar monitoring in several national parliaments of EU member states and the European Parliament. The DQI will enable monitors to assess the level of argumentation of each speech in debates, the level of respect among MPs and the level of respect for their arguments, the usage of inappropriate language (foul language) and the willingness and preparedness of MPs to change their own positions under the force of better arguments in debates.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

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