Assessing transparency in government: rhetoric, reality and desire

Transparency in government is a highly regarded value and a critical ingredient for efficient and well-functioning economic and political markets. Many countries, including Italy, refer to transparency as a tool to enhance government accountability, as a principle to promote in order to reduce corruption in public administration and as a means for circulating information on government performance. However, transparency is preached more often than it is practiced in many cases (Heald 2006). Conversely, not all of the information disclosed is easily accessible or accessed by external stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to assess the degree of transparency of governments and to ascertain the type of information that can be accessed by external stakeholders, especially the general public, in order to evaluate the performance of their government. In particular, the paper focuses on the information disclosed through government websites and assesses the case of larger municipalities in Italy. The paper presents the findings of the analysis and suggests some recommendations for academics and policy makers.