Not so universal after all: Exploring the meaning and use of government transparency in consensual and majoritarian democracies

Abstract

Government transparency has become a widespread value of democratic governance, yet theory suggests that various forces shape transparency differently in consensual and majoritarian regimes. As a result, transparency may achieve different goals in different democratic regimes. Presented here are the results of a study comparing the Netherlands and New Jersey. Results reveal that ideas about information disclosure in the two jurisdictions are distinctly different. They suggest that in a majoritarian democracy transparency is needed to empower interests that are not represented in the decision-making process, whereas in a consensual democracy a wider range of interests is already represented in decision-making, and thus there is less need for transparency as a means to empower citizens. This implies that despite its universal application, there is no “one size fits all” solution for government transparency.