ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how the Venezuelan parliament uses the Internet and its interactive potential. The popular hope for a return to truly contentious parliamentary debates, and a revitalisation of parliaments capacity to restrain executive power in a hyper-presidential system, was present among all sectors of the Venezuelan public. Over the past four years legislation concerning public transparency and public access to information has been systematically neglected and deferred in the National Assembly. In the Venezuelan National Assembly, Twitter is the social network that representatives have signed up to and used the most. The current legislature has organised several civil initiatives that seek to promote better social dialogue between parliamentarians and citizens in order to improve the difficult conditions regarding transparency and accountability in the Venezuelan National Assembly. Certainly, the implementation and proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) theoretically enables a less centralised management of information and a more pluralist public debate.
