Quality criteria for HomeParliaments on openPetition

Voting question/main question

• The question is relevant to a specific parliamentary decision in the future or is intended to initiate a specific parliamentary decision on an issue that is already known to the public as an urgent concern.
• No suggestive or tendentious questions.
• The question must be posed as a decision question, allowing for the answer to be yes, no or abstention.
• The results of the HomeParliament session are available before a parliamentary decision is made.

Balancing questions/sub-questions

• The main question must be able to be divided into at least three concrete sub-questions, each of which addresses different aspects of the voting question in order to give the debate more depth. The aspects should overlap as little as possible. Sub-questions address the impact of the voting question on the areas of society, social issues, economics, ethics and aesthetics.
• The sub-questions must be balancing questions for which a degree of agreement can be meaningfully indicated (scale 0-10). Subquestions are evaluative questions that cannot be answered scientifically or objectively. They encourage a differentiated, subjective assessment of the situation.
• No suggestive or tendentious questions.

Background texts

• The background and initial situation of the demand are presented in a generally understandable manner. Even those who have not yet dealt with the topic in detail can understand the problem and proposed solutions.

addressee

• Addressees can be individual members of parliament, one or more parties, entire parliamentary groups or even cross-party committees.
• The question is relevant to the addressees and they have the authority to make (or co-make) decisions on it.
• The addressees undertake to submit a public statement on the issue promptly after the HomeParliament session and to what extent they follow the results of the round or not and why.
• The commitment is documented in writing.
• The statement must be made in those groups in which they have committed to making a statement (as an individual, parliamentary group, etc.).

Arguments

• The arguments provide space for opinions from across the democratic political spectrum.
• Arguments for and against should be as balanced as possible. A one-sided, distorted presentation is not acceptable.

Sources

• Sources must reflect the current generally accepted scientific consensus.
• The sources must be known and have proven prominence and reputation in their field.
• Sources must be available in the languages of the HomeParliament.

Understandable language

• Texts are written in language that is as easy to understand as possible. If technical terms are used, they must be explained.
• Texts are available in languages spoken in the state(s) where the HomeParliament is held.

Petitions

The quality criteria for petitions also apply to HomeParliaments.

Questioner

Use of the HomeParliament platform is free of charge provided that the questioners refer to openPetition and their role in the process in every report.

Status: February 2021