Transparency Reform Research Articles

Redressing the Legitimacy Deficit within the World Trade Organization: The Aspect of External Transparency

The World Trade Organization (WTO or hereinafter 'Organization') has been facing serious legitimacy challenges since its very creation. The legitimacy deficit mentioned, among other factors, is the consequence of the anti-democratic decision-making mechanism applied within the Organization. This anti-democratic nature of the decision-making system derives from the fact that representation exists only in a very narrow sense while organized civil society is excluded from deliberations completely. In addition, accountability and judgment as from the affected become impossible due to the confidentiality of many political documents and the disinterest of national parliaments. These shortcomings encompass what has been popularly referred to in the academic literature as the issue of 'external transparency'. The article argues that the external transparency issue within the Organization is a problem that needs a multi-level and multi-dimensional approach. Contrary to many unrealistic proposals in the academic literature, however, it endeavors to draw up an adequate and implementable external transparency reform proposal, which takes into consideration the realities and also the special characteristics of the WTO.

Political Economy System Maps Political Economy System Maps: A Clear and Systematic Way to Present Systems of Transparency and Accountability Reform

This concept note presents political economy system maps (PESMs). PESMs are a conceptual and visual tool to help policy-makers think about the problems affecting the production and delivery of public goods and services from the point of view of the system’s political organization, as well as possible interventions to solve those problems. These maps help to problem-solve by transforming information about a public good and services production and delivery into a set of simple strategic insights about the underlying political landscape (actors, flows and processes) on which the system is based upon. In so doing, these maps can help understand better the incentives and expectations at play in a public policy system and to manage reform processes.We use the case of transparency and accountability reforms to illustrate our point.

Is Transparency the Key to Reducing Corruption in Resource-Rich Countries?

Transparency is increasingly viewed as central to curbing corruption and other dysfunctions of resource-rich developing countries. The international development community has pushed transparency in resource revenues through such initiatives as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Despite the popularity of the transparency concept, its role in reducing corruption and averting the resource curse is poorly understood. This paper reviews the main mechanisms through which transparency can reduce corruption. It argues that transparency is insufficient in itself, and needs to be complemented by other types of policies. Transparency reform should focus on the areas most important to alleviating the resource curse. In view of the resource curse literature, the emphasis of the EITI on revenues rather than on expenditures appears misplaced.

Myths and Realities of Governance and Corruption

A number of popular notions and outright myths on governance and corruption are addressed in this chapter. We distinguish clearly between governance and anti-corruption, while probing the links between both notions. In so doing we challenge the conventional definition of corruption as being too narrow, legalistic and unduly focused on the public sector, while underplaying the role of the private sector. We then challenge the notion that governance and corruption cannot be measured, showcasing the latest worldwide governance indicators, measuring six dimensions of governance and cover over 200 countries, based on multiple sources, including the EOS. Thanks to these governance indicators and related datasets, it has been possible to study the extent to which governance and anticorruption matters. Consistent with the adage that 'sunlight is the best disinfectant', the potential gains of embarking on a transparency reform strategy is given particular prominence in this chapter, and a detailed 12-point 'scorecard' for countries to rate themselves in terms of the implementation of concrete transparency measures is presented. The chapter then concludes with a call for a global compact on governance and anti-corruption, where the G-8 and other rich countries, the multinationals, IFIs, civil society and the government leadership in the emerging economies share responsibility in making concerted progress.

Faces and Phases of Transparency Reform in Local Government

The authors draw on public and official perceptions to discuss the discontinuities between various interpretations of transparency in local government jurisdictions. The article seeks to establish a theoretical understanding of transparency in public administration literature. Transparency in the formative years of a nation is not necessarily the same idea as transparency in a globalizing information age. Likewise, the meaning of transparency in least developed countries is changing with their acquisition of sophisticated information technologies and pressures to reduce corruption. Scholarship on transparency needs to recognize the different changes in meaning ascribed to this very important administrative principle. Evidently, universal lessons might be brought to bear to help develop a coherent theoretical basis on stages and interpretations of transparency reforms in local governments.

Restoring Faith in Government: Transparency Reform in the United States and the European Union

On the surface, the transparency reform movements in the United States and the European Union appear to have much in common: both the US and the EU have embraced transparency as a means of bolstering public confidence in governance, and the EU's recently issued access regulation shares many features with the US Freedom of Information Act. The similarities end there, however. The goals of the EU reform movement are far more ambitious than those of the US. US reformers hoped that sunlight would put an end to the corruption and abuse of power that plagued the executive branch in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but they did not seek to change the decision-making process itself. In contrast, the EU has latched onto transparency reform as a means of democratizing and legitimizing EU governance. Unfortunately, reformers in the EU have yet to link transparency reforms with democratization of the legislative process. Although transparency is an invaluable tool with which the public can monitor EU governance, transparency alone, without concomitant increases in public opportunities to influence EU decision-making, cannot ameliorate the EU's infamous `democratic deficit'. Increased transparency must be coupled with public participation rights before reformers can accomplish their ambitious goal of bringing EU decision-making closer to Europeans.