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Transparency in South American Central Governments

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Accountability; Corruption; Socioeconomic development; Transparency

Definition

The term “transparency” in economics and finance is defined very broadly as a process by which information about existing conditions, decisions, and actions is made accessible, visible, and understandable. Transparency is understood as the effective flow of information or as the process in which the information is prepared and disclosed in a safe, understandable, and timely manner (IMF Working Group 1998; Kopits and Craig 1998; Vishwanath and Kaufmann 1999). In particular, transparency is the opposite of secrecy (Florini 2000). One of its main underlying assumptions is that transparency is always closely connected to accountability.

Transparency in public administration gives greater openness about political and economic decisions and promotes the accountability of organizations (ibid.). Therefore, the need to establish transparency mechanisms is essential to improve public managers’ decision-making...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Paola M. Hermosa, Elena Urquía-Grande & Cristina del Campo

  2. Research Centre in Political Science (CICP) and Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Susana Jorge

Authors
  1. Paola M. Hermosa
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  2. Susana Jorge
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  3. Elena Urquía-Grande
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  4. Cristina del Campo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susana Jorge .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Hermosa, P.M., Jorge, S., Urquía-Grande, E., del Campo, C. (2020). Transparency in South American Central Governments. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_4130-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_4130-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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