Evaluating and fostering transparency in local administrations

Abstract

The methods used to evaluate the transparency of local administrations present notable differences that are influenced by national legislation and administrative characteristics. Consequently, it is difficult to formulate a valid international procedure to obtain a global picture. We have conducted a comparative analysis of the procedure developed by Transparency and Integrity in Portugal with that designed by the Laboratory of Journalism and Communication for Plural Citizenry in Spain. The results reveal that the approaches, maintained in various disciplines, exhibit notable but complementary differences. In the conclusions we propose new elements to design a method based on a syntax of transparency and order of fundamental elements.