ABSTRACT
Petitioning is one mechanism that many legislatures are turning to as they seek to
tackle disengagement from formal democratic politics. For this reason, if no
other, there is merit in examining how legislative petition systems operate in
practice. Moreover, what a legislature does with the petitions it receives may
shed some light on the culture of the institution and its attitude towards engaging
with citizens and interest groups. Leston-Bandeira (2002) observed that the main
criticisms of petitioning were its ineffectiveness and the long time span between
the presentation of a petition and its consideration by parliament. A further
concern was that organised groups, such as trade unions, might dominate the
process. Do such criticisms continue to apply, or have recent developments in
legislative petitioning created more effective and participatory processes?
More fundamentally, what functions do legislative petitions systems serve,
what makes an effective petitions system and, ultimately, what impact can a
legislative petitions system have on policy outcomes and on support for the
legislature as a whole?
