Promoting Sustainability Transparency in European Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis Based on Administrative Cultures

Andrés Navarro-Galera,Araceli De Los Ríos-Berjillos,Pilar Tirado-Valencia,Mercedes Ruiz-Lozano

doi:10.3390/su9030432

Andrés Navarro-Galera, Araceli De Los Ríos-Berjillos + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030432

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Abstract

Nowadays, the transparency of governments with respect to the sustainability of public services is a very interesting issue for stakeholders and academics. It has led to previous research and international organisations (EU, IMF, OECD, United Nations, IFAC, G-20, World Bank) to recommend promotion of the online dissemination of economic, social and environmental information. Based on previous studies about e-government and the influence of administrative cultures on governmental accountability, this paper seeks to identify political actions useful to improve the practices of transparency on economic, social and environmental sustainability in European local governments. We perform a comparative analysis of sustainability information published on the websites of 72 local governments in 10 European countries grouped into main three cultural contexts (Anglo-Saxon, Southern European and Nordic). Using international sustainability reporting guidelines, our results reveal significant differences in local government transparency in each context. The most transparent local governments are the Anglo-Saxon ones, followed by Southern European and Nordic governments. Based on individualized empirical results for each administrative style, our conclusions propose useful policy interventions to enhance sustainability transparency within each cultural tradition, such as development of legal rules on transparency and sustainability, tools to motivate local managers for online diffusion of sustainability information and analysis of information needs of stakeholders.

Highlights

During the last years, various authors [1,2,3] have concluded that on a global level, the effect of the economic crisis on government finances has transformed public-policy sustainability into a topic of substantial concern for citizens, politicians, managers and other stakeholders
Applying content analysis to the websites of the 72 local governments in our sample, we obtained the data included in Table 2, which presents the indices of sustainability transparency for the three analysed groups of local governments (i.e., Anglo-Saxon, Nordic and Southern European) differentiated by blocks: general, economic, social and environmental
Prior studies have analysed the dissemination of financial information on local government websites in specific countries, comparative analysis of sustainability transparency has not received the necessary attention

Summary

Introduction

Various authors [1,2,3] have concluded that on a global level, the effect of the economic crisis on government finances has transformed public-policy sustainability into a topic of substantial concern for citizens, politicians, managers and other stakeholders. Against the backdrop of worldwide government financial crises, several international bodies [4,5,6,7,8] have emphasised the need to adopt good governance practices for public policies of sustainability and encourage transparency regarding social, economic and environmental information [9,10]. In this line, numerous studies have emphasised that transparency of public policies is a key element of good governance [2,3,9,11,12]. Studies [3,14,18] have recognised the timeliness and relevance of studying e-government contributions to online transparency of sustainability for local governments

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Conclusion