No. 116, October 2000

Summary of the keynote speech for the APLAP Conference

The Role of Parliament and the Parliamentary Library in the New Century

by Takami Katsutoshi 
Professor, School of Law, Hokkaido University

It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that the term "Information Society" came to use in Japan. The term was replaced by "Advanced Information Society" and "Networked Society" in the '80s and '90s. Now in the year 2000, with the new millennium closing in, we have the "Information Technology (IT) Revolution" making headlines in the media, foreboding a great change to come. These terms are spoken about in every corner of the world, pointing to the direction of a rapidly transforming society. Since parliament stands on the basis of society, it is directly affected by this social upheaval. 

Here I will discuss the role to be played by parliament, and subsequently, the mission to be carried out by the parliamentary library from the viewpoint of "information" and the "flow of information". 

Firstly, let us look at government and parliament from the viewpoint of "quantity of information." One cannot help being astonished at the imbalance that exists between the executive and the legislature. The government daily gathers and accumulates immense quantities of information through their nationwide network of administrative and bureaucratic system, whereas the information the parliament possesses is very limited. And traditionally, the executive has regarded its information monopoly and secrecy as a useful tool for effective control over the people. The development of democracy, however, made sure that the executive could not pursue this "the less they know, the better" attitude. The 1960s saw the movement for disclosure of government information rise in developed countries, and the subsequent enactment of "free information" legislation punched holes in executive secrecy. 

Parliament, on the other hand, is by nature open to the public, being a discussion forum, whose members are elected directly by the people and represent the people as a whole. This contrasts with the hierarchical, and therefore, closed structure of the bureaucracy or the executive. Thus, the expected function of parliament at its creation was to penetrate executive secrecy and open up the information monopolized by the government. 

This can be likened to a drill that makes a wind hole into the secret box of information or a pipe through which the information flows. 

Now, taking a look at parliament from the viewpoint of "flow of information," we may observe that it stands between the people and government at the junction of the government-to-parliament flow and parliament-to-people flow. 

First, the government-parliament relationship. Here, the parliamentary task is to watch and control the executive bureaucracy by drawing out the information they tend to hide, that is, the information against the executive. The parliamentary library will play a very important role in providing crucial information for members of parliament. 

Second, the parliament-people relationship. Thanks to its structural openness, parliament enjoys a relatively free exchange of information. The flow of information used to be one-way from the parliament, but the rapid advance of information technology enabled people to send information directly to the members of parliament and their parties, not only during election campaigns but rather as daily practice. Parliament, in turn, will selectively utilize the people's information in the legislation. The establishment of a forum will be the next step, where people and parliament share information. The parliamentary library is expected to be the cornerstone of the forum, providing the latest parliamentary information and developing a system to offer its vast accumulation of materials to the people who are interested in legislative activities. The "electronic library project" will contribute to building such a system. 

From the viewpoint of "information flow," parliament is a public space in which entirely different information from both government and people mix and swirl. The task of parliament is to shape the chaos into something tangible, to make fundamental decisions for government, and to show the direction in which the nation should be heading. In other words, the parliament has an "articulation function," a "strategy function" and a "teaching function." Parliamentary functions can also be characterized as two contrasting models: "transforming" type versus "arena" type, or "working" type versus "address" type. A "transforming" parliament filters and processes the information that flows in and transforms it into a law as output. A "working" parliament examines governmental proposals from various aspects, and tailors them to be acceptable for the people. 

The parliamentary library, being a support agency of the parliament, has little role to play in the "arena" or "address" model which is more or less a political show for the public. But in the "transforming" or "working" model, the characteristic of which is the steady and specialized deliberation in the committee, it may fairly be said that the quality of information provided by the parliamentary library and other support agencies is vital in the transforming and working function of the parliament. 

Lastly, in this context, I would like to raise three points concerning the role of the parliamentary library, especially its legislative support section, or the information which the section should provide. 

First, the the parliamentary library needs to consciously provide factual data on the legislation that will facilitate review of the law by the judiciary, or objective data on the policy that supports the legislation as a foundation. Also, the preparation of "constitution-conscious" information is needed; such as, whether or not rationality is recognized both in the aim of the law and the means to realize it, and whether or not there is a less restrictive measure available when the law will impose some restriction on human rights. 

Second, the parliamentary library should actively inform the legislature of its own objective appraisal and evaluation of the policies behind bills. Of course, the policy evaluation it offers as information must be accurate and objective, based on data, and non-partisan and balanced. It would contribute to the enhancement of parliamentary activities, if it functions as a think tank for the legislature, examines the issues from a medium/ long-term perspective, and, above all, provides policy evaluating information of high quality from parliamentary librarians or legislative experts. 

Third, the parliamentary library should become an "information base" that plays the role of "go-between" between parliament and civil society, and serve as a core system for the continuous communication between them. It is not an overstatement to say that whether parliament can duly function in the information society depends on the ability of the parliamentary library to accumulate and supply useful information for them. 

In the catalog hall of the main building of the National Diet Library is inscribed: "Truth Makes Us Free." This motto was inscribed to recall the painful event, namely, that with the truth hidden from the people, Japan blindly dashed into a devastating war. Thus, since the war Japan has been determined to contribute to democracy and world peace by making all information available to the people. I am convinced that this motto will be given further life in the 21st century, when the parliamentary librarians gathered here closely cooperate with each other and establish a solid information network.