Parliaments – Governments

A potential legislative data space would facilitate the exchange of data and information between parliaments and administrations, within administrations, between the federal government and cantons, and, if necessary, between administrations of different cantons.

User Stories – In a Nutshell

As a …, I want to … in order to …

Status Quo and Problem

Legislative and executive branches of municipal, cantonal or federal governments need to exchange political and administrative information efficiently across organisational and institutional boundaries along the lifecycle of an item of business (“Geschäft”). Currently, this exchange often relies on documents, PDFs and email attachments. Different authorities frequently operate incompatible systems (“Ratsinformationssysteme”), data formats and processes, resulting in fragmented information flows, a lack of collaboration, duplicate work and costly technical workarounds. There does not seem to be a need for private data sharing between institutions of different federal levels.

Supplying public or closed data on political processes to researchers and journalists is relatively time-consuming for parliaments and administrations.

Use Case

The use case aims to replace document based exchanges with structured, standardised and interoperable data flows. Institutions should be able to create, update and transfer information on legislative proposals, parliamentary business, consultations and political proceedings while retaining control over confidential data and maintaining separate systems where institutional independence requires it.

The City of Zurich illustrates a possible implementation. Its parliamentary service and city chancellery procured the same underlying system in a coordinated process. Although the system was installed separately (multi tenant) and adapted to the specific needs of each institution, the shared technical basis enables reliable data exchange. A clear political mandate also requires all administrative departments to register new items of business through a common data entry interface, improving consistency and data quality.

Structured, standardized data exchange could support collaboration through shared platforms instead of email based document circulation. It could also provide consolidated overviews of political activities across departments and jurisdictions, helping institutions identify emerging topics and coordinated parliamentary initiatives at an early stage. Standardised interfaces and Open Government Data platforms could additionally facilitate access for researchers and the media, although existing interfaces are not always used extensively.

The main barriers are fragmented responsibilities, inconsistent implementation of existing standards, differing data formats and quality requirements, limited resources and the relatively low level of digitalisation in political decision making. Established processes are often retained because they are familiar and perceived to work adequately. Without a clear political mandate and an overarching governance framework, individual authorities tend to develop isolated solutions.

The preferred approach is therefore not a single data space for all political information, but a federated environment based on common standards, compatible systems, clear responsibilities and controlled access.