Tools for Transparency? Institutional Barriers to Effective Civic Technology in Latin America

Abstract

Digital NGOs design and popularise tools to open up, and enable citizens to interact with, decision-makers. The successful operation of such platforms depends on the expertise and efficiency of the NGO, and the willingness of institutions to disclose usable information. It is this institutional interaction with civic technology that this paper seeks to explore. This paper examines the empirical interview data gathered from government officials, public servants, campaigners and NGO's involved in the development and implementation of civic technologies in Chile, Argentina and Mexico. The findings identify the impact that civic technology has had upon government bureaucracy, and the barriers to openness created by institutionalised behaviours and norms. Institutionalised attitudes to information rights and conventions are shown to inform the approach that government bureaucracy takes in the provision of information / data, and institutionalised procedural behaviour is shown to be a factor in frustrating NGOs attempting to implement civic technology.