Open Government

Open government is best regarded as the technique or techniques through which the principles of openness and transparency are given effect. It is now a truism that these principles are essential to the development of governance, which is responsible, accountable, and responsive to citizens. This perception has developed in the light of what some regard as the democratic deficit in national and supranational jurisdictions: Greater transparency has been seen as a corrective to governance that is too complex and remote.

But if there is little dispute about the desirability of the underlying principles, the consensus has often broken down when it comes down to their translation into practice. Aside from anything else, an open government [Page 636]regime is potentially challenging to established modes of government. It has two principal strands:

• 1.
  Greater access to information for citizens. This may be further subdivided into reactive and proactive release of information. The first is typically delivered through Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, which give citizens a right of access, which is subject to exemptions and under the oversight of an independent adjudicator. In parliamentary systems, these rights are often supplemented by the right of elected members to obtain information from the executive branch of government. Proactive release is less commonly subject to legislation. To implement such a regime, a public authority has to exceed its customary obligations to produce policy papers or to meet the requirements of legislators and regulators. The objective is to inform public debate through the release of research, background analysis, and the like—without the need for FOI requests.
• 2.
  Greater access to the decision-making process. Good-quality, timely information may be an essential condition for greater openness, but it is not sufficient by itself. Citizens and their proxies must have the opportunity to engage with officials throughout the policy-making process and beyond. Attempts have been made to regulate this strand of open government. For example, the United States introduced statutory rights of access to government meetings—subject to exceptions—through the government in the Sunshine Act of 1976. But it is inherently difficult to put a legislative framework around the policy and implementation processes. The real prize is to encourage behaviors that build a dialogue between citizens and government—in short, to develop a culture of openness in which officials seek to draw citizens into the process without being forced to do so on pain of sanction.