Who speaks and who listens? Parliamentary e-petitions and the connections between campaigners and the UK Parliament

In the context of declining public faith in democracy and rising democratic disengagement, this thesis explores how the UK Government and Parliament e-petition system is being used by members of the public to engage with parliament and how those in parliament come to listen back. Whilst the literature on parliamentary e-petition systems across the world is extensive, it has been largely concerned with the design and procedures of the systems, neglecting to consider how citizens engage with, discuss and disseminate their e-petitions, how they come to be used in wider campaigning objectives and how a range of intermediaries may bring the voices of the public to the ears of policy makers. Through qualitative document analysis and semi-structured interviews with petitioners and parliamentary actors, this thesis explores the campaign processes, strategies and experiences of petitioners and the parliamentary actors who supported them across a total of nine different animal welfare e-petitions submitted in the 2019-2024 Parliament. It underscores the everyday online practices undertaken by petitioners as central to the process, explores the role of well-known voices such as celebrities, and emphasises that the benefits that arise from the use of parliamentary e-petitions should be viewed widely in terms of the doors that are opened into wider parliamentary networks and processes. In doing so, this thesis makes important original contributions to the academic community, but also to petitioners and practitioners about how new participatory tools like e-petitions can amount to a much wider repertoire of democratic action.