Vision, voice, and measurement: is there a global "open government" trend?

“Open government” (OG) is one of the most recent buzzwords in public administration. More and more governments are enacting open government reforms, in part spurred by initiatives such as the Open Government Partnership,... [ view full abstract ]

“Open government” (OG) is one of the most recent buzzwords in public administration. More and more governments are enacting open government reforms, in part spurred by initiatives such as the Open Government Partnership, in part as a logical continuation of the previous transparency, participation and open data “revolutions”. At the same time, we also see an emerging democratic roll-back around the world, including a shrinking space for civil society in more and more countries – which goes against the core idea of “openness”. Thus, while many governments pay lip service to openness, the reality of open government is more ambiguous. This paper investigates the actual changes in government openness around the world. The research questions are: What is open government and how can we “see” it at the country-level? Has there really been an OG revolution?
The paper will proceed as follows. First, we review the definitions of open government found in the academic literature, both in public administration and in related fields. We also look at international organizations that have been major drivers for the diffusion of open government across countries, such as the OGP itself, but also the OECD, the WB, and other relevant organizations. Second, building on this, we develop a framework for assessing different aspects of open government across countries, and identify current data sources for such an assessment. These includes both data on the legal and institutional infrastructure for openness, and measures of the actual information released and opportunities for participation established. Based on these we analyze trends in open government across countries and identify areas for further research and data collection.