Barriers for Open Government Implementation at Municipal Level: The Case of the State of Mexico

Abstract

Open government implementation is usually top-down. It starts on the federal government, then goes to local governments, and finally arrives at the municipal or county level. Despite too much research on the national level, very little is known in the municipalities' efforts to implement open government. We intend to fill this gap by understanding the barriers that hinder the implementation of this effort. Our research question: What barriers have impeded the implementation of open government in Mexico's municipalities? To answer this question, we propose a combined assessment framework that include: government confidence (trust), regulations analysis, and open government barriers from the model of Zuiderwijk [39]. We surveyed 134 public managers from a sample of municipalities of the state of Mexico. Our findings show that the trust within government agencies comprises more precise regulations to foster open data, and open government is essential. Lack of innovation is a crucial barrier to implement open government at the municipal level in the state of Mexico.