After reading the wikipedia entry on open government i was interested to learn more about one of these organizations that is fighting for governments to turn away from secrecy. So i went to Transparency International's official site. I learned a lot about this organization. Transparency international's goal is to "to create change towards a world free of corruption". It lists ways i never even thought of that corruption can sneak into the public and private sector. TI has been very successful since its formation in 1993. Among others, a significant accomplishment of TI is found in this statement from their website: "prior to 1996, the World Bank did not explicitly discuss corruption. Today, the Bank considers it the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development." but this begs the question: How are you fighting corruption?
They seem to combat corruption through several methods including: diagnosing corruption, raising awareness, and working to increase the transparency and accountability at the national level (ie what the wikipedia article was even about). one tool they use to fight corruption is an Integrity Pact which essentially states, among other things, that government and those bidding for a public contract will not accept any form of bribe. There are a series of sanctions that will be imposed for not complying with the pact. Including blacklisting.
they also had data compiled into three fascinating indexes: the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the Bribe Payers Index (BPI), and the Global Corruption Barometer. I thought the CPI was especially cool because you can see a numerical value for all the countries indicating how corrupt they are. i could go on for a long time about this stuff but i recommend you just go and look at it yourself.
Do you think that an open government would be able to get rid of all corruption? I think there would definitely be a better chance of preventing and exterminating corruption, but I wonder if there would still be ways that people could use open government to get gain. What do you think?
ReplyDelete@Kevin: Governments become corrupted because people gain "a little authority" and are tempted to abuse it. If government was completely open, then the power would be handed back to the people, who, with their "little authority," would abuse it just as much as the government. For example, potentially embarrassing information about politicians could be easily falsified and published everywhere on the Web, and lackadaisical people would most likely think it came from an "open government" source and believe it.
ReplyDeleteI actually hold with Machiavelli and his peers in that the natural man is not to be trusted. Therefore, while some people might try and help "spot the bugs", as in the audio file from the other day, but that most would probably try and use it to their advantage, ie blackmail etc. Check out what I've had to say. ENougHsaid11.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree with Maggie and Erin -- but think that there is some middle ground with openness. Be sure you calculate the impact of openness in government (or elsewhere) before defaulting to fears about possible abuses. Most government corruption thrives on the secrecy that officials purport to be essential. Not all of it is -- perhaps very little of it. The Freedom of Information Act has been a great solvent in this country to solve and prevent problems. The web just amplifies the potential openness for governments. Think of it in terms of accountability.
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