Transparency for Democracy

Overview

• Open Government Data: Potential Benefits and Costs
• Transparency for Democracy
• Accessible = Informed?
• Recommendations

Open Government Data is "non-privacy-restricted and non-confidential data which is produced with public money and is made available without any restrictions on its usage or distribution” (Janssen, et al. 2012).

Examples

• recovery.gov
• data.gov

Principles of Public Data

• Public
• Open
• Described
• Reusable

Public: there is to be “a presumption in favor of openness,” consistent with valid reasons (e.g., privacy, security) for restricting access.

Accessible: “Open data structures do not discriminate against any person or group of persons and should be made available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes, often by providing the data in multiple formats for consumption.”

Described: “Open data are described fully so that consumers of the data have sufficient information to understand their strengths, weaknesses, analytical limitations, security requirements, as well as how to process them.”

Reusable. “Open data are made available under an open license that places no restrictions on their use.”

Potential Benefits of OGD

• enhance democratic accountability and participation
• improve the functioning of government
• promote economic development
• increase the well-being of citizens

Potential Negatives of OGD

Cost

Defensive Caution

Private Information

Misuse

Empowering the Empowered

Beyond Costs and Benefits

Property
"I would argue that information gathered by public officials at public expense is owned by the public— just as the chairs and buildings and other physical assets used by government belong to the public" (Stiglitz, 1999).

Publicity
"[T]ranscendental formula of public law: 'All actions relating to the right of other men are unjust if their maxim is not consistent with publicity'" (Kant, 1795).

Accountability
The representative “must eventually be held to account so that he will be responsive to the needs and claims of his constituents, to the obligations implicit in his position” (Pitkin, 1967).

"[O]penness enhances democracy by giving citizens a greater voice in what government does, and promoting government action that advances the interests of all, not just a privileged few."

Arguments from Democracy

Preference

“[T]he rights and interests of every or any person are only secure from being disregarded when the person interested is himself able, and habitually disposed to stand up for them” (Mill, 1861).

Deliberation

“When properly conducted, then, democratic politics involves public deliberation focused on the common good, requires some form of manifest equality among citizens, and shapes the identity and interests of citizens in ways that contribute to the formation of a public conception of common good" (Cohen, 1997).

“Since democracy brings a lot of people into the process of decision making, it can take advantage of many sources of information and critical assessment of laws and policies” (Christiano, 2008).

Equality

“[E]ach person has a fundamental interest in being treated as a person with equal moral standing among his fellow citizens” (Christiano, 2008)

What if we build it and they don't come?

"None of the information a man [sic] receives is completely costless. Merely perceiving it takes time; and if he assimilates or thinks about it, these acts take more time. Thus unless the opportunity cost of this time is zero, which is unlikely, he must sacrifice a scarce resource to gain information" (Downs, 1957).

Possible Replies

“Transparency is about availability and accessibility, but these attributes of transparency are agnostic on the question of who might take advantage of that availability or accessibility and at what cost” (Shauer, 2011).

"[C]itizens should be primarily concerned with understanding their interests as well as the common good and justice as these affect their choices of aim" (Christiano, 1996).

Distributed Knowledge

Information Intermediaries

Recommendations

Prioritize

education

Support Intermediaries

Fill the Gaps

Thanks For Listening!