Open Government

Transparency is a rally cry across the political spectrum, from Tea Party activist to dedicated Progressives.  While the Internet holds great promise for fiscal transparency, few governments have had the bravery to implement true transparency.

On the local scene transparency is often met with massive resistance. Opacity has a two-fold appeal:

1. It keeps the public in the dark regarding the mistakes made by legislators, executives and top management.
2. It insulates the rank and file from public scrutiny regarding job performance.

So police naturally don’t want a full and open review of call logs, response times, and citations issued. Full disclose of true crime statistics would cause public distress. Full public review of technical documents such as inspections of public facilities, engineering and safety assessments, proposed designs … no, those would just distress the public and invite excessive scrutiny. Yet it is clear public scrutiny and transparency may be the best answer to building and maintaining responsive and honest government.

The problem with the American Republic is not the bothersome twittering by the at large public. The problem with the Republic is cynicism and apathy. Open source project work on the Internet because the nerds who are really into coding do it out of love. Well government needs love as well. Would it be so bad if the wonks could review our governments internal workings? I think not.

In the wake of the O’Donnell Park death the citizens of Milwaukee should demand no less that total transparency at both the municipal and county level.

Informative Links:

The Obama Administrations' Open Government Initiative - 

"From Food to Finance: What Makes Disclosure Policies Effective?" By Archon Fung, Mary Graham, David Weil and Elena Fagotto. A. Alfred Taubman Center for State and Local Government, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Taubman Policy Brief PB-2005-3.

"The Political Economy of Transparency: What Makes Disclosure Policies Effective?" By Archon Fung, Mary Graham, David Weil and Elena Fagotto. Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, OPS-03-04, 2004.

"The Political Economy of Transparency: What Makes Disclosure Policies Sustainable?" By Archon Fung, Mary Graham and David Weil. Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, OPS-02-03, 2003.

"The Benefits and Cost of Transparency: A Model of Disclosure Based Regulation," By David Weil. Transparency Policy Project, A. Alfred Taubman Center for State and Local Government, Kennedy School of Government, Working Paper, 2002.

"Information as Risk Regulation," By Mary Graham. Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, OPS-10-01, 2001.