Educational functions of e-parliaments: a longitudinal analysis of the Brazilian case

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the Brazilian Legislative websites at state level (Legislative Assemblies), observing, for illustrative purposes, the National Congress (Chamber of Deputies and Federal Senate), in relation to the legislative functions: legislation, legitimation, representation, scrutiny, education, and participation. The investigation focuses on comparing the performance of these websites between 2014 and 2016, regarding how socioeconomic and political factors influence the index of each function mentioned above. The results indicate that, contrary to expectations, there was no lessening of the digital divide, especially in relation to the educational functions of e-parliaments.

Keywords:
Internet; Brazil; Parliament; Education