Open Government influence on Social Prosperity

Synonyms

Control of corruption; Environment; Open government; Rule of law; Social capital; Transparency

Definitions

Open government deals with the transparency and dissemination of information of government thus encouraging civic participation and boosting economic prosperity. This study finds that open government also contributes to social capital and environment. However, mechanisms such as Rule of Law and Control of Corruption are conditions in mediating the two variables.

Introduction

Transparency and civic participation are related to the recent hot-debated topic “open government.” To define and to promote open government, practitioners and academics have been long studying the effects, aftermaths, and cautions of the functions of open government. Institutions at the international level, like the Open Government Partnership and the Latin-American Network (Red Latinamerica por la TransparenciaLegislativa), have already begun to create networks among government and civil...

Appendix

Variable description:

Independent Variable

Publicized laws and government data

The World Just Project regards this the first dimension to what they define as open government: transparent, accessible, participatory, collaborative, and responsive. According to Lathrop and Ruma (2010), the accessibility of government data is a precondition to open government, which is improving transparency and accountability of public affairs through which citizens have the opportunity to influence political decisions (Heckmann 2011).

Right to information

Right to information has become synonymous with democracy. With the diffusion of right to information law throughout Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa, and South America after the Cold War (Florini 2007) and the spread of the Access to Information law (Relly and Sabharwal 2009), the movement toward citizens’ rights to information and information accessibility has become important. The law gives citizens the right to gain access to data and documents to trace actions and decisions made by the government. This allows them to detect corruption and hold the government accountable for the information it provides (McGee and Gaventa 2011; Michener and Bersch 2013).

Civic participation

Civic participation improves the realization of important democratic values (Macintosh 2008). Although there is a lack of scientific evidence to prove whether civic participation is directly related to a prosperous society, the objective of many organizations and studies indicates that open government leads to public participation and democratic societies (Di Gennaro and Dutton 2006; Hilgers 2012; Lathrop and Ruma 2010).

Complaint mechanism

The last condition for an open government is the complaint mechanism implementation between the public and government. The public must raise their complaints and their voices and government must respond to the citizens’ requests. The purpose of the mechanism is that the public is not only provided with data, but can give feedback to the government so that their opinion is reflected in the process.

Dependent variable

Economic dimension:

Economic quality

Stable and high-quality economic fundamentals, such as accounting reports, increase economic wealth which promotes social wellbeing. The economic quality pillar measures the countries’ performance in four key areas: structural policies (e.g., trade barriers), economic satisfaction and expectations (e.g., satisfaction with living standards), distribution of prosperity (e.g., relative poverty), engagement (e.g., labor force participation and financial access), and production quality and diversity (e.g., export diversity and quality).

Business environment

In a good and strong business environment, citizens have the opportunity to pursue innovative ideas to improve their lives, leading to more wealth and higher social wellbeing. The business environment measures how well people have access to infrastructure, such as the Internet, transport, and credit, and how comfortable people are with the idea of starting their own business. Bittencourt (2011) proved that financial development indeed played an important role in generating economic growth, economic activity, and innovation in the region.

Institutional dimension:

Governance

A well-governed and democratic society has a high level of citizen wellbeing because of assured political and economic freedom. Governance measures the effective and accountable government, fair elections political participation, the rule of law, and the level of a country’s democracy. It also assesses levels of government corruption and competition, and citizens’ confidence in the honesty of elections and the broader policymaking process.

Personal freedom

According to the Legatum institute, a society experiences high levels of income and wellbeing when its citizens enjoy freedom of expression, belief, and organization, as well as personal autonomy in a diverse society. This pillar measures the freedom of a country’s social tolerance. It captures the importance of various freedoms – of choice, expression, movement, and belief – and tolerance of minorities and immigrants, which enhance a country’s wealth and the wellbeing of its citizens. Societies that foster strong civil rights and freedoms show increases in levels of citizen satisfaction.

Social dimension:

Health

A strong health infrastructure enables citizens to enjoy good physical and mental health. Strong mental health leads to higher levels of economic prosperity and wellbeing, whereas poor health keeps people from fulfilling their potentials. The health pillar evaluates countries based on indicators of strong health infrastructure (rates of immunization and sanitation facilities), life expectancy and mortality rate, and individual satisfaction with health. It is reported that self-reported wellbeing and health are strongly and significantly correlated to a society’s overall health, further fostering human capital creation, which leads to higher economic development.

Safety and security

Safety and Security measures the national security, personal precariousness, and personal safety of a country. A stable social and political environment at a national level is measured by the political terror scale and its investment for sustaining economic growth. Academic research shows that organized political violence, such as crime, hinders economic growth (Cho et al. 2016; Guiso et al. 2004). When individual citizens worry about their personal safety their overall wellbeing suffers. In addition, an environment of fear and uncertainty negatively affects life satisfaction. (Personal safety measured through questions such as “Do you feel safe walking alone at night?)

Social capital

When people trust and respect one another, the social network and the cohesion of a society has a direct and positive effect on the prosperity of a country. Social Capital measures a countries’ performance in three areas: social cohesion and engagement (bridging social capital); community and family networks (bonding social capital); and political participation and institutional trust (linking social capital). Empirical studies on social capital have shown that citizen wellbeing improves through social trust (Helliwell 2006). Similarly, societies with lower levels of trust experience lower levels of economic growth (Guiso et al. 2004). Thus, the word “capital” in “social capital” highlights the contribution of social networks as an asset that produces economic returns and improves wellbeing.

Environment

Environment has been recently added to the Prosperity Index. The Legatum Institute has found that several indicators of the environment, including the use of pesticides, and land and marine areas devoted to nature, and air quality, show a significant relationship with average national wellbeing and material wealth. A high-quality environment may bring a sense of wellbeing and satisfaction to a country’s population, whether it is physical, such as air quality; social, such as green areas and recreation; or symbolic such as national parks. Agriculture, ecotourism, and nature conservation also provide economic benefits making a high-quality environment an important measure linked to economic and social prosperity.