Resumen de Studying the Relationship between Parliament and Citizens: introduction

Cristina Leston-Bandeira

• The relationship between parliament and citizens has been neglected traditionally by the legislative studies scholarship. And yet this is the area that has seen the most phenomenal developments within the last few decades. As a reaction against increasing levels of political disengagement, and utilising modern tools of communication such as new media, parliaments have in fact considerably developed the possibility of linkages with the public. And yet what we know is still very patchy. This introduction establishes the premises of this collection and the questions it aims to address, in order to identify patterns in the relationship between parliaments and citizens across a wide range of case studies.