Making information silent: How opacity takes root in local governments?

Abstract

AbstractWhether transparency policies are an effective tool for fighting corruption is still under debate. Some scholars have argued that making information available is insufficient for effective transparency. This effectiveness is moderated by the citizens' motivation to use the information and how public officers generate and store information. The latter suggests certain practices could undermine the value of information, but we still do not know enough about those. We argue that practices generating opacity are a way to undermine the value of information. To investigate this, we used a qualitative approach to explore the conditions or practices causing opacity in Mexican municipal governments. We found four tactics public officers use to generate opacity and three institutional conditions that allow it. These findings provide further insights into how the processing and use of information affect the effectiveness of transparency.