What is your MP doing? The Datan platform deciphers their political participation

Some digital tools have been designed to make the functioning of our institutions more understandable. Valuable resources for citizens, especially during the time of early legislative elections.

Parliament, MP, amendment, bill, rapporteur... these words cover essential concepts in our democratic system. However, unless one is passionate about politics, their meaning may not be very clear. Some online initiatives are being developed to provide citizens with keys to understanding: this is the case with the Datan platform.

Datan: "The National Assembly, finally understandable"

Result of the vote on the bill to limit PFAS: On April 4, 2024, MPs adopted the entire bill aimed at protecting the population from the risks associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (first reading). In total, 213 MPs participated in the vote: 87% voted in favor, 0% voted against, and 13% abstained.

This is the promise of this web platform created by Awenig Marié, a political science researcher at the University of Brussels. His team, composed of volunteers and a scientific committee, highlights the decisions of MPs regarding important bills for society.

Neutrality in the data

Retrieval of amendments in JSON/XML format with this description: This dataset concerns all amendments submitted to the National Assembly in committee and in public session for the 15th legislature, by reading and by order of submission. For each amendment, its author(s), content, object, statement of reasons, and outcome (adopted or rejected) are indicated.

We tap into the National Assembly's open data: we have robots running every day to retrieve and collect all the Assembly's data.
Awenig Marié

The Datan platform is based on raw data, with the aim of making it more accessible. This allows for the display of statistics on the choices of political parties, as well as the individual decisions of MPs. Additionally, a proximity score indicates whether an MP is close to their party's line... or not.

Can Datan be used to decide who to vote for?

A search on the platform, by simply entering the city of residence or the name of your MP, allows you to view the information about them:

By typing Marseille into the search bar, I get results: Marseille, Marseillette, Finance Bill 2022, ...

Then, simply click on your MP's profile to see a summary of their votes:

Recent votes for Franck Allisio, National Rally MP: He voted in favor of the Constitutional Bill amending the electoral roll in New Caledonia and against the Bill strengthening the fight against sectarian excesses.

Their voting participation rate, as well as their proximity to their political party, are also indicated:

Voting participation for Franck Allisio: When he was active in the Assembly, Franck Allisio participated in 81% of the solemn votes in the National Assembly. He voted less often than the average MP, which is 83%. Moreover, Franck Allisio voted less frequently than the average MP in his political group, which is 85%. Solemn votes are those considered important for which MPs know the day and time of the vote in advance.

In the example above, the MP votes almost in the same way as their party. This is not systematic, as can be seen below:

Another calculation also indicates the proximity of MPs to the presidential majority.

The platform also allows for the consultation of their campaign promises, enabling the tracking of MPs' stances over time.

Page on the Datan platform's declaration of intent with this description: A declaration of intent is a document written by a candidate in an election. In this document, the candidate presents themselves and outlines their ideas and program that they wish to defend and implement if elected. With a declaration of intent, candidates try to stand out from other candidates, both in terms of content and presentation. In France, declarations of intent are sent by mail to the homes of people registered on the electoral rolls.

A reading by political groups

Directory of political groups in the assembly: Democrat (MoDem and Independents), Ecologist - NUPES, ...

The Groups section of Datan offers a complementary perspective, focusing on political parties as a whole. Beyond votes, it also includes information on the gender balance, average age of MPs, and their potential proximity to other parties.

Different statistics for the National Rally: With 89 MPs, the RN group represented 15% of the total number of MPs in the National Assembly, which is 577. The RN group had 33 female MPs, or 38% of its members. This is more than the National Assembly average of 37%. The MPs who were members of the RN group had an average age of 48. This is younger than the National Assembly average of 51 years.

The impact of Datan for citizens and MPs

Since the dissolution, we have had between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors per day. MPs inevitably have an interest in paying attention to what we do and sharing our goal: to make their work more accessible.
Awenig Marié

To go further in understanding what happens in the Assembly, a new feature has been added: it allows MPs to explain their votes.

Example of a voting explanation with Philippe Emmanuel from the Renaissance group regarding the Constitutional Bill enshrining abortion (IVG) in the Constitution: He voted in favor with this justification: I voted to include IVG in our Constitution to make this right irreversible in our country. This victory is the result of the struggle led by our grandmothers and mothers to secure this right. It is a victory for our daughters, so they will never have to question their freedom over their bodies again. We can be proud of our country. The personal commitment made by Aurore Bergé played a crucial role in this success.

The platform is important to encourage MPs and the various parties to be accountable and to explain the positions they have taken.
Awenig Marié

💡 To learn more: watch the video interview with Awenig Marié on theLinkedIn andInstagram pages of Les e-novateurs.

References:

[Cover photo: Datan website homepage]

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