Use of Internet Platforms in the Activities of the Oliy Majlis: Current Status and Trends in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Fast-growing ICTs are changing how democratic governance takes place due to increased transparency, effectiveness, and civic engagement based on digital tools, and internet platforms are now a new fact of life in core parliamentary work. We draw evidence from Uzbekistan, where national digital transformation priorities are materialized by integrating internet platforms into the activities of the Oliy Majlis, more especially institutional systems such as the Electronic Parliament, and public engagement platforms, such as My Parliament, that provide support for legislative workflows, information, and interactions between the legislature and citizens. While the development of digital governance has attracted considerable attention, research on the actual usage, users and institutional dynamics of internet platforms within the Oliy Majlis is sorely lacking, and most studies offer a major focus on the more general e-government policy or comparative international experiences. The objective of this study is to analyse existing digital practices in the different functions and processes of the Oliy Majlis, explore major trends that shape online accountability including transparency and citizen participation. The results of the analysis indicate that internet platforms are playing a growing role by enabling legislative processes to be conducted in proximity to each other, streamlining the access to parliamentary information, and promoting active feedback channels, while they also demonstrate some hurdles in terms of digital skills, equal participation opportunities, and effective implementation of e-tools. This research presents a more nuanced examination of the dual role of institutional and public-facing digital platforms in the Uzbek parliamentary context: the interplay between legislative efficiency and civic engagement. These results highlight the huge importance of improving digital literacy, encouraging public awareness and widening functionality of the platforms in order to maximise democratic participation, therefore they provide useful implications for moving towards the use of Denmark Facebook in digital parliamentary practices and democratic governance in Uzbekistan.