Are the answers all out there? Investigating citizen information requests in the haze of bureaucratic responsiveness

Abstract

Under freedom of information (FOI) regulations, public officials are pressured to grant citizens access to public information by responding to citizen information requests. However, despite FOI regulations, information requests are treated with varying bureaucratic attention, resulting in a high number of ignored or overdue requests by public organizations. Focusing on this bureaucratic discrimination, this study aims to explain the determinants of varying bureaucratic responsiveness to citizen information requests. Responsiveness in this case is therefore either a successful response to the request, a refusal to respond to the request, or no response at all (i.e., the request is ignored). By drawing on public accountability, and thus a citizen-driven model of bureaucratic responsiveness, we shed light on the human aspect behind responsiveness to information requests. This research argues that the request's topic as an accountability-seeking indicator and the communication tone as an indicator for underlying emotions influence responsiveness. The results from applying text mining and text analysis techniques, such as topic modeling and sentiment analysis, on over 100,000 citizen information requests filed via a German online FOI platform support these assumptions.