In our first article in this series about open and transparent government initiatives, we asked why U.S. government agencies seem to be growing less open (meeting fewer records requests than previously). In our second article, we looked at solutions: how to retrieve and produce records on demand more easily and quickly.
Today, we’re going to talk about the why behind these questions: why does open government even matter?
1: What does open government mean?
The technical definition of open government is surprisingly broad. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines it as “a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholders’ participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth.”
In other words, openness in government activities isn’t just about making records more accessible; it’s also about facilitating civic participation in, and cooperation with, government initiatives, while ensuring that failures in governance are appropriately recognized and rectified.
Still, it is clear that the transparency aspect is particularly critical. For government to be maximally effective, citizens need to understand what the government is doing, why, and what results it is producing. In turn, that requires government records be accessible and consumable by the public and other stakeholders.
2: Why does the transparency aspect matter so much?
In short, transparency builds trust. Research from the University of Arizona, for example, looked at data from 134 countries over a decade and found that “open governments, in general, have higher levels of public trust in a variety of public institutions.” Another study published in the journal World Development similarly found that “increasing transparency helps to improve trust in the government.”
This is why we previously talked about the importance of being able to meet Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The fulfillment rate on FOIA requests serves as a proxy measure of governmental transparency. When the government can’t or won’t produce legally requestable records, it immediately erodes trust.
3: What happens when the public trusts the open government?
Government can be more effective in their public works when it is trusted. We saw this relationship play out during COVID-19. In research from analysts at consultancy group Deloitte: “Trust has played an important role in effectively managing the COVID-19 pandemic, as countries with higher levels of social and government trust have typically seen slower virus spread and a lower mortality rate,” they write.
They cite examples like South Korea, which contained the pandemic without a widespread economic slowdown or shutdown. “Key to the country’s ability to avoid a shutdown was its unusually high level of social and governmental trust,” writes Deloitte. A similar dynamic played out in other countries, like Taiwan and New Zealand.
Altogether, open government promotes public trust in government; and when the public trusts the government, government agencies can be more effective in their work. So, by extension, open government makes it possible for agencies to be more successful in meeting their mandates.
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