Talk with your deputy

CULTURE & SOCIETY

by THE OLBIOS TEAM

Gregor Hackmack has created an impartial online platform that enables direct, public dialogue between individual citizens and their elected representatives, holds politicians accountable to the public, and gives citizens easy access to political information. Gregor Hackmack is Co-Founder of ParliamentWatch, an independent platform that gives German citizens the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers from their Members of Parliament over the Internet; 95% of all delegates participate in this online dialogue. The platform has been successfully exported to Luxembourg, Austria, Ireland, Tunisa and France. In 2008, Hackmack received the Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurship. He is also one of three initiators of a successful referendum campaign for a more direct electoral law and a revolutionary transparency law in the state of Hamburg. Hackmack holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Master’s degree (with distinction) in Political Sociology, both from the London School of Economics (LSE). Parliament Watch enables citizens to: question their members of parliament in a public environment, find out about the voting record of their members of parliament, follow up on promises made (all questions and answers are saved forever), learn all about the extra earnings of members of parliament Before elections (on the state, federal and European level) the project is extended to include all candidates running for election. None of these functions require prior registration and all functions are available completely free of charge.Parliament Watch is instead financed through membership and one-off donations as well as premium profiles for candidates during election times. Parliament Watch works. In average, the website counts 6.800 Visitors a day and about three million page impressions per month. More than 80% of all MP of the federal parliament answer questions through Parliament Watch. In Germany, the project covers the federal parliament, the European parliament, nine state parliaments and 54 parliament on the communal level. All in all the digital voters’ memory counts 143.507 questions and 115.921 answers (as of January, 31th, 2013) So far they have helped to start Parliament Watch projects in Ireland, Austria, Luxemburg and Tunisia. In addition, Parliament Watch inspires similar projects in other countries e.g. Malaysia. Parliament Watch_website Website: https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/ueber-uns/mehr/international#information

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