During the last few decades, the nature of national and international archives has become more and more differentiated. Evidence of this is not only the formation of countless groups of expertise within the German Association of Archivists, but also the establishment of different sections in the International Council on Archives (ICA). During the International Congress on Archives in Montreal in September 1992 a further section, the Section of Archives and Archivists of Parliaments and Political Parties, was constituted. A brief listing of the main reasons for the formation of this new Section follows:
In the western form of democracy, political parties and parliaments are complementary entities, and, as such, are necessary components of democratic constitutional life. The parliaments are at the centre of the political system; their members, elected in free and general elections, represent the nation's public. In bicameral systems, the principle of national represenation is augmented by a second house, selected either by representatives of the federal states or regions or by representatives of the Estates.
In addition to the parliaments, the political parties are of vital importance. General statements cannot be made owing to the different structures of parliamentary and presidential democracies and the role of the parties in individual systems which, as for example in the USA, are reduced to simply mobilising the citizens prior to elections. Even so, in the modern party-political parliaments, it is usual for the government and its supporting parties and parliamentary groups to be closely interlocking: the parliamentary opposition has the task of keeping check on the government and its parliamentary groups, putting forward criticism and offering political alternatives to the public. However varied the organisation of the individual political parties and the accentuation of their structure within the system may be, the system of political parties should represent society as far as possible in all its nuances, differing interests and persuasions as well as currents of opinion, thereby forming a bridge of communication between the state and society. The political parties are a source of leading political personnel and, particularly for the parliaments, provide a personnel feeder service. They therefore operate on the leading edge between state and society. They should also be able to form majorities capable of creating a government, i.e. over and above the articulation of the interests of particularism towards a total representation supported by a majority. Last but not least, the political parties are required to contribute to the formation of the people's political opinion.
The great importance of the political parties and parliaments in all current systems of government for constitutional life provides not only the legitimation but also the obligation to archive their records.
Records of the parties
The records of the party associations and committees- as far as the major political parties are concerned - are of top priority in archival interests. This includes all levels of associations and committees (programmes, minutes of meetings, correspondence, files of the secretary, etc.), the files of their parliamentary representatives, of the parliamentary groups as well as the documents of politicians from their business in party office, in the legislative or the executive, i.e. the personal papers. It is precisely these personal papers which are not only the expression of the political work of the individual and of the complex web of relationships between party, parliamentary group and members of parliament; they also reflect the organisational structure of political parties and their function in political systems. Such personal papers are essential as proof of the work of dignitary parties. How else could their historical-political tracks be traced - bearing in mind the fact that the organisational structure of this party type is not very well developed?
The political personal papers of the functionaries and leading representatives at all levels play an important role for another reason as well: if the actual organisation files - for whatever reason - have been lost, then personal papers form not only an important supplement to the actual party files, but also act as a sort of replacement record.
The actual files of the political parties are crucial for the understanding of the organisational and programmatical development, in short: as evidence of the effectiveness of the so-called major parties - at all levels. They are proof of the formation of opinion and intention of the so-called grassroots of the party and of conversion into political acts of intention and actions - on a communal, then regional and national and also on an international level. It is only if the records of the political parties are kept as far as possible as a unit and the archives form the definitive end of the records management, that thorough party research is possible and the reciprocal permeation of state and society in a democracy is realisable.
The historical importance of materials of democratic parties is as indisputable as that of the records of parties in dictatorial systems. As is underlined by the discussion surrounding the party archives of the former GDR or the Soviet Union, the records of these 'state structures' is of major interest. These - usually well-ordered - archives may be regarded as state archives, due to the comprehensive activity of these totalitarian mass integration parties, in which they completely take over, even subjugate, the state. It stood to reason therefore, that these archives were taken into the care of the national archives following the collapse of the eastern bloc states.
The records of democratic parties, on the other hand, are not the responsibility of the state archival administrations. The parties and the party leadership are generally not very aware of the historical significance of their written records. One could assume that many are relatively indifferent towards their own history, their roots and their historic development and their place in history.
There are many reasons for this widespread disinterest: One reason is that parties only occasionally possess an organisation similar to that of a public authority, with the corresponding guidelines for records management, registry and the necessary archive space. Offices purely for this purpose with the corresponding trained personnel do not normally exist - with the exception of the head offices. There is a lack of funds - this is probably one of the main causes - and of archive space and personnel; the personnel that is available changes frequently. In other words, systematic organisation of the files is definitely the exception. As a rule, those files not needed any more for current business are banished to the basement or the attic, or even destroyed due to lack of space. Apart from that, parties are less interested in their history than in the structure of current politics, in gaining and keeping power; they look forwards and concentrate on winning elections.
Even so, there are several western European countries with centralised party archives, which - sometimes closely connected with the party leadership, sometimes in specially founded institutions, in foundations or research offices - look after the relevant source material. Finally there are several parties which entrust their records to national archives.
Central archives can be found: with the Social Democrats/Socialists in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria; with the Christian Democrats in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria and Spain; with the Liberals in Germany and Belgium.
Parliamentary records
The parliamentary records are in a much better situation. As a rule they attach great importance to the independent custody of parliamentary records, in order to document their independence from the Executive. The parliamentary archives have a double function and are, typologically, situated between archive and documentation. They are pertinent and person-related press documentation, they are documentation of legislation and their main task is the description and rendering available for access of parliamentary papers. Together with the documentation of legislation may be found, besides the original copies of proposed legislation, initiatives, motions and recommendations, minutes of plenary assemblies and committees, as well as statements of those ministries involved with the legislation, also petitions from citizens and pressure groups. The parliamentary archives also receive the material of the parliamentary administrations. In the actual 'archives' with a long tradition, besides documentary work, the personnel also carry out the specific archival business of the accession of current records of parliament, its committees and other bodies, as well as the archival processing of registry material of the parliamentary administration. Parliamentary photo, video and audio material, election campaign documents and other such material may also belong to the collections of the historical archives.
In parliaments which do not have a long history, parliamentary documentation predominates. According to equipment and size, the 'documentation' comprises libraries, press documentation and above all documentation of legislation. All parliaments have the latter, together with all the particularities of the individual parliament. Compilations of bills which have and have not been passed together with motions and drafts form a complete overview of the path taken by deliberations and the development of a law. Also the collection of biographical details of representatives and their political and parliamentary activities form part of the parliamentary documentation. The structure of the index system, which is closely linked to the number and content of the documents, differs from country to country. The requirements of the possible users are equally varied.
The fact that these 'modern' archives mostly occupy themselves with current parliamentary material, is not necessarily due to any under-development in the historical awareness of the parliaments. The cause could be: the flood of current and varied materials which have to be dealt with quickly; lack of qualified personnel; relatively small holdings of non-current records due to a lack of tradition; official instructions to concentrate on supplying support to the members of parliament; in practice a much greater stream of users of the documentational material than of researchers who are more interested in non-current records; lack of funding (space, personnel) for the archival processing of non-current records; national archival laws which stipulate that non-current records are to be deposited in the national archives.
The parliamentary archives in the following countries regard themselves in the first instance as historical archives with a long tradition of important holdings of non-current records: Great Britain, France, Italy (Chamber of Delegates), Norway and Finland. The parliamentary archives in Belgium, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Poland, Spain and Hungary collect holdings with an equal weighting both historically and documentarily. Documentation, archives and library are separate from one another in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands (Second Chamber), in Austria and Spain. The following parliaments give their non-current records to the state archives: the Netherlands (after 50 years), Lithuania (after 15 years), Sweden (after 20 years) and Switzerland. Greece and Switzerland provide pure information services. Ireland stands as a total exception: there is no general archive for both Chambers; each individual Section administers the records independently and also decides independently on the accessibility.
The parliamentary groups and their records
It is hardly possible to consider meaningful parliamentary work without division of the parliaments according to party-political orientation. In every representative assembly politically like-minded members get together in groups in order to make the parliamentary work easier and to influence it as they would like. These are the parliamentary groups - in literature frequently referred to as 'parties in parliament'. The parliamentary groups are not only the parliamentary equivalent of the modern party-state; within them a certain amount of representation on a communal, national or international level takes place.
Speaking of the parliamentary group as a 'party in parliament' is not actually the complete truth. It is not that a party can tell 'its' parliamentary group in parliament what to do. From a historical point of view, there were parliamentary groups before there were parties; in other words, the formation of parliamentary groups was originally not dependent on the existence of parties. The parliamentary groups as institutionalised groups within the parliament are also parts of a principal instrument of state and therefore have a constitutional weight which is not afforded to the freely formed parties which are based in the socio-political area. Legally, the parliamentary groups are therefore free to decide on how far they want to take up the ideas of the party in content. The parliamentary groups therefore have , not infrequently, aims which bear little resemblance to the resolutions of the party conference. In the forefront, the parliamentary groups see the necessity to take into consideration the permanently changing situation and to meet new and pressing challenges. Demands dictated by practical politics are not made in this way on the parties, as they usually formulate long-term aims in their programme.
Parliamentary parties are therefore indispensable for parliamentarism to function. They are involved in the recruitment of personnel which the parliament has to make available for offices of state, and elect. They nominate the members of the various parliamentary bodies, the presidents, the members and chairs of the various committees and working groups, etc. Their organisation, which depends on the size of the individual parliamentary group, has to follow democratic rules. The deciding body is the general meeting of the parliamentary group, which elects from its own members the committee, possibly an inner executive committee and the working groups which are separated according to subject areas and work on different items under debate.
On the one hand, the parliamentary groups have a joining function: they combine the individual opinions of the members and guarantee opinion and decision forming within the legislative process, at first within one single parliamentary group and then across all parliamentary groups , up to the final voting. On the other hand, they are the deciding link between the constitutional institutions and parties, associations, academia, the media up to and including the individual citizen by means of exchange of information, communication, leadership and the promotion of consensus. They articulate the political interests active in the population and have to integrate different approaches to problem-solving into a joint political aim, which will be put to the electorate to vote on at the next elections.
Through their technically formal actions (familiarization with and preparation of subjects for debate for the general assembly) and their application to the material content (by gradually achieving majorities), parliamentary groups are part of the inner parliamentary opinion-forming and decision-making process; at the same time they also act beyond the parliament, into the parties, into the government, which they support, control and criticise, and into the general public. In leadership, the integration which promotes acceptance, and the negotiation of opportunities within political competition, they assume an important role together with the parties which support them and the government.
As a result, it can be seen that the tasks of the parliamentary groups in relationship to their parties, to the government, to the groups in society, can consist of a whole string of different functions, depending, of course, on whether the parliamentary group supports the government or the opposition and which role is played by the parliament in question.
The range of these functions is reflected in the files kept by the bodies of the parliamentary groups and their members. Without these files, continuous work and development in the legislative area is just as unthinkable as it would be in public authorities and governmental institutions or within the legal system. They are indispensable for day-to-day business and work as well as for the information requirements of the members of the parliamentary group. They are also necessary for the continuity and historic orientation extending past the end of the legislature period, as it is not always possible for proposed legislation to be finalised within the period between two elections. The importance of the records of the parliamentary groups for research (depending on their supranational, national, regional or communal involvement) cannot be overestimated - whether the research is historical, political or sociological and not least also specific to the parliament or party as well as regional and locally oriented.
Despite this, the awareness of the value of these as a source is on the whole still not well developed. This is not because the offices of the parliamentary groups were indifferent to their development or their position in history. The prime reason is that the parliamentary groups did not have sufficient personnel or storage space, particularly shortly after they had been called into existence. It is frequently simply the space for non-current records that is missing. So the records are destroyed when they are no longer needed for current work or when space has to be created. Compounding this problem is the fact that a large amount of the work for the parliamentary group and for the parliament is carried out by the individual members and they, when they leave or when they need more space, simply dispose of their files. Only very few transfer them to their homes.
Some of the most important documents in the records of the parliamentary groups are the minutes of the meetings, since here the overall policy of the parliamentary group is decided upon. Only of slightly less importance are the minutes of the board meetings, in which the agenda for the plenary assembly is defined. The chairman and the secretary of the parliamentary group accumulate records which are also of particular importance; as are the minutes of the working groups, in which the individual political areas are dealt with. Last but not least are the current records, containing case files and correspondence. Within these records may be found documents on laws, personnel decisions, questions of finance and work organisation, also citizens' petitions, associations' presentations on individual laws, papers which document the connection to the party, to the government and to public authorities, etc.
It is an exception for files of the parliamentary groups to be kept systematically with proper office organisation and order as well as registries with archival space. From this point of view, complete records are not found very frequently; too much has been lost for the above reasons. The personal papers of leading members of the parliamentary groups form a welcome and necessary supplement to the documents otherwise available. They often close gaps - as in the case of incomplete party files - which have mostly formed out of pure lack of understanding or due to insufficient storage space. As a rule, a complete picture of a parliamentary group's activities can only be drawn when the original files are viewed in connection with supplementary documents from personal papers.
In contrast to the parliamentary archives and most of the party archives, the situation of the records of the parliamentary groups is, as a whole, even less satisfactory. Only in the Federal Republic of Germany is systematic archival processing guaranteed by the existence of the political foundations. Improvement initiatives will have to first take place on a national and regional level. If neither the parties themselves, nor foundations nor research institutions take care of the records, then the national archives should.
The Section of archives and archivists of parliaments and political parties in the International Council on Archives
Although the records of parties, parliamentary groups and parliaments are of great historical importance, their archival processing is in a rather poor state. This is particularly true of party files and those of the parliamentary groups. What is needed is not only a general sharpening of awareness as regards their high value as a source, but also an exchange of know-how between the archivists of political parties and parliaments on a national and international level. It would be a great gain for the archives and for historical research if comparable criteria for archival appraisal, description and reference service were developed.
Archival science has until now occupied itself far too little with the question of political parties, parliamentary groups and parliaments and their archives, despite their political and historical relevance. It is not yet generally known that the documentation of the many and various written papers produced in a democratic state by the state and municipal activities of political parties, parliamentary groups and parliaments has to be carried out in addition to the traditional archival tasks. The inclusion of these informal papers in archival programmes in the future has to be considered and organised.
Out of these fundamental considerations there developed in the international area the desire, initially amongst European parliamentary archivists, for increased communication and closer cooperation. The first impulse came in 1988 at the International Congress on Archives in Paris. It led to the first international contact between European parliamentary archivists that same year in Bonn with the participation of several archives of political parties. The decision to try to set up a corresponding Section within the International Council on Archives (ICA) was taken. The ICA reacted rather cautiously to this initiative to begin with, on the one hand due to the budgetary constraints on the body, and on the other hand bearing in mind the doubts, not completely unfounded, as to whether this Section would attract a sufficiently large number of members. For a while it looked as though the initiative would come to nothing. However, a worldwide information and advertising campaign amongst the archives of political parties and parliaments, which the Archive for Christian Democratic Politics of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation organised in 1991, supplied the ICA with a considerable number of new members in a relatively short time, so that the basis for the formation of a Section of archives and archivists of parliaments and political parties within the ICA was established. Following the resolution taken at the General Conference of the ICA on 7 September 1992, the new Section was constituted on 11 September in Montreal. The final recognition of this Section took place in 1996 at the International Congress on Archives in Peking. Worldwide, the Section now has approximately 70 members.
The aims of the new Section as laid down in the statutes are to stress the importance of the archives of parliaments, parliamentary groups and political parties; to accentuate in the international field the interests of their archives; to achieve a uniform high standard of qualified archival methods by the transfer of specialised archival knowledge to all cultural states, this being a politico-cultural aim of international importance; to overcome frontiers and, increasingly, to reach cross-border solutions to problems; to enable information and experience to be transferred via meetings; to strive for an exchange of archive personnel, in order to improve the connections between parliaments and between political parties; to reconcile the historical-political traditions of parliaments and political parties with the demands made by archival science on the archivist; to make known the holdings of parliamentary and party archives of different countries in order to improve the understanding of the historical-political identity and history of those countries; to achieve greater recognition and stronger support in state and society through the active use of public relations work.
Five conferences have taken place since 1992. In March 1993 in Rome, the Section dealt with the situation of European parliamentary archives. In November 1994 in Prague, the archives of the political parties were the topic of the reports and discussions. In November 1995 in Budapest, the institution of the parliamentary group and its mediatory role between the parties and parliaments was the central theme. The fourth conference in May 1997 in Warsaw, in which non-European archivists also took part for the first time, looked at "electronic data processing" in archives and accessibility to parliamentary and party archives.
In most countries, the use of electronic data processing in archives is just beginning. This new technology, which is particularly important in the documentation of parliamentary archives, is furthest developed in western European countries. The aim is to achieve comparable standards of electronic data processing. There is just as much variation as well in the matter of access to the records of parliamentary and party archives. For this reason the Section addressed the topic of access to parliamentary records in 1998 in Stockholm.
Nearly all archives have their own access regulations with unrestricted access for readers such as researchers, journalists and interested citizens. There are, however, in most countries (with the exception of Sweden) different access dates which determine the accessibility for non-official reference or for research projects with special authorization. These restrictions are not only meant for the protection of the interests of state (mainly concerning security and foreign policy), but also for the protection of the rights of personal privacy of living persons. The access dates for non-published materials extend from 80 to 20 years depending on the kind of document; based on international recommendations, however, the ultimate goal should be a uniform procedure. The "Resolution of the European Parliament of 10 July 1997 on public access to documents of the European Parliament" does not include any general access dates. This opinion has been confirmed in the "Report on the Special Report by the European Ombudsman to the European Parliament following his own-initiative inquiry into public access to documents (C4-157/98)" of 2 July 1998.
The ruling concerning access dates for personal files is also very varied, with a span of 100, 50 or 25 years after death. Special access restrictions often exist for private archives, since many owners arrange additional conditions concerning access when they deposit or transfer material. In view of these greatly differing regulations, the Section believes it is an important task to achieve standardized conditions of access.
Photographs, sound recordings and film documents are becoming more and more important in the modern society of communication and information. Current events and also history are increasingly conveyed and perceived by means of pictures. Therefore, historical understanding is hardly possible any longer without the systematic use of pictures and sounds as documents and information carriers. For this reason, the Section also considered the problems concerning the audio-visual collections in the archives of parliaments and political parties at its Stockholm conference. These collections not only document pronouncements of the main political persons and present an invaluable acoustic complement to written texts; they also reflect, in addition to the history of parliaments and political parties, the great lines of developments of the national political and cultural history of the last few decades. Survey, conservation, description and reference service of the audio-visual documents have to be adapted, from this aspect, to the requests and expectations of the readers, who generally come from the media, editorial teams from television, publishers (particularly publishers of school books), organisers of exhibitions and communications research. In this field as well, the Section is trying to sharpen the awareness for the importance and safeguarding of this new type of document.
It is to be hoped that the work of the Section and its publications, by international communication and cooperation, will help to underline the historical importance of the archives of political parties, parliamentary groups and parliaments. The Section is well on the way in its call for the extension of the concerned record groups and in its efforts to achieve uniform standards in the qualified treatment of archival problems.