Asia-Pacific Regional Centre

Parliamentary Development in Asia and the Pacific

Integrity Systems and Codes of Conduct for Parliaments

The role of parliament in the process of strengthening democratic governance has become essential. Parliament constitutes the peoples’ house, mediating different constituency interests, establishing political priorities and resource allocations. Further, parliamentary institutions provide a counterbalance to the executive branch and give the electorate a voice in public policy making processes. For parliaments to fulfil such functions efficiently, the integrity of the institution and its members should be beyond reproach.  Parliament and its members should function in transparent fashion, ensure proper accountability mechanisms for their actions and have proper codes of ethics and mechanisms for regulating the behaviour of the institution and its members.  

Rationale of the project

Public trust in the behaviour of parliamentarians is declining in many advanced democratic countries. For example only 7 percent of Australians believe that Members of both State and Federal Parliament are of high or very high standards of honesty and ethics. This decline of the public trust is caused by several factors, including the non-responsiveness of politicians, the non-accountability of politicians, and voters’ perceived loss of political efficacy. Further, while in many countries the trust in government is declining, the public’s concern over the misconduct and corruption scandals of elected officials is increasing. An attempt to build up the public trust in parliamentary institutions and strengthen the integrity and transparency in the systems is urgently needed. The question arises therefore about the need for or strengthening where existing, parliamentary codes of conduct/ethics, both at a ministerial level and representational level. Codes of conduct/ethics are believed to be one of key integral mechanisms in combating corruption and regain public trust.

One critical argument against the practicability of codes of conduct/ethics for parliamentarians centers on the fact that codes of conduct/ethics are inappropriate, given the nature of parliament as an institution. The argument posits that codes of conduct/ethics were originally developed for private professions. Professions are characterized by the fact that the members share a large number of values and subscribe to criteria for judging proper and improper, acceptable and unacceptable conduct and in contrast to the parliament which is composed of representatives who possess and display normative diversity of moral outlooks. Attempting to agree on a shared set of values to be embodied in any code of conduct/ethics would be very difficult. Some of the questions that require further answers in this area include:

• Do we have any evidence of the fact that parliamentarians’ conduct perceived to be more ethical when codes of ethics or conduct/ethics are enforced?
• Are codes of conduct/ethics the most effective mechanisms to improve the conduct of parliamentarians? Are there other more effective mechanisms to regulate ethics?
• What features would an acceptable and effective code of conduct/ethics have? Are some features applicable to different parliamentary systems?
• What should codes of conduct/ethics contain and how should the code be implemented and enforced?
• How effective does the Ethics Commissioner/Committee function in the process of enforcing the code of conduct/ethics of the parliamentarian? Are there examples where these have really worked well, and why?
• If code of conduct/ethics could not work alone, what are the complementary options available for improving the conduct of parliamentarians?

Objective

RCB, funded by ARGP, has initiated a comparative study on Integrity Systems and Codes of Conduct for Parliaments. The objective of this study is to conduct comparative research on parliamentary codes of conduct/ethics in Asia and beyond. The study would focus on, among others, the following areas:

• the efficacy and practicability of codes of conduct/ethics or equivalent mechanisms for improving conduct of parliamentarians (ethical conduct as well as the attendance to and performance of their parliamentary duties);
• features of acceptable and effective codes;
• details of codes of conduct/ethics from certain case countries, with attention to implementation and enforcement mechanisms and terms of immunity;
• the role and effectiveness of ethics commissioners or committees;
• the role of non-parliamentary actors in society in enforcing codes of conduct/ethics;
• other options for addressing conduct of parliamentarians, and the conditions influencing effectiveness of such options;
• the transferability of codes of conduct/ethics and alternate mechanisms between countries with differing political systems (presidential, parliamentary and mixed), parliamentary structures (unicameral and bicameral), and social and cultural conditions with attention to conditions for effectiveness.

The research will map the terrain of literature on parliamentary codes of conduct/ethics or other similar mechanisms. The paper will draw on experience from the work of other international agencies/donors that work in the area of promoting parliamentary development as well.

The Study will be completed by the end of 2006 and will be available for free access on-line at this site.