Parliamentary Questions and Open Government

Parliaments, the conventional wisdom suggests, tend to be dominated by the executive, with little ability to monitor the government’s activities. Yet, the ability of legislators to question members of the executive is an important feature of many democratic legislatures. This paper provides an account of the procedures and practices of parliamentary questions across a variety of countries. The roles and functions of questions on the floor of the legislative chamber and in written form are explored. Parliamentary questions help elected politicians accomplish their representative roles while also providing the legislature with a tool to monitor and hold accountable the executive. Drawbacks to aspects of parliamentary questioning are discussed and measures to maximize the value of questions as a tool of open government are suggested.