Transparency in the Open Government Era

Abstract

The decline in citizen engagement in the public sphere has long been one of the main challenges of modern government. Issues of trust, openness, and transparency are being frequently and intensely discussed as the public manifests lack of confidence in public servants and governmental institutions. The advent and development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is gradually revolutionizing this situation. Open government is an innovative strategy for changing how government works, helping to increase government transparency and accountability at every level. By using network technology to connect the public to government and to one another informed by open data, governments ask for help with solving problems. The end result is more effective institutions and more robust democracy. The chapter has as an objective to discuss on a theoretical level the role of open government mechanisms in introducing a new relation between citizens and policy makers.