Accountability and transparency are of growing importance in contemporary governance. The academic literature has broadly studied the two concepts separately, defining and redefining them, putting them into various frameworks, and sometimes mistakenly using them as synonyms. Curiously, the relationship between the two concepts has been studied only by a few scholars with preliminary approaches. This theoretical article focuses on both concepts, attempting first to describe them, taking into account the various evolutions in the literature and recent developments, and also the first attempts to link the two concepts. In order to show a new approach linking the concepts, theoretical situations in which the concepts are linked are portrayed, demonstrating the need to reconsider the relationship between transparency and accountability. Consequently, a new framework amending the most recent approaches is presented, theoretically delimited and exemplified through practical cases.

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The increasing demand for transparency has recently fostered greater openness within public administrations. Considered as an essential tool of good governance, transparency helps reinforce the perceived legitimacy of authorities. At the same time, local autonomy has been increasingly embraced in recent decades and recommended by many international institutions. This article combines these two concepts and seeks to highlight the causal relationship that binds them. Given its diversity, Switzerland offers fertile ground for assessing the influence of local autonomy on information-dissemination practices through a comparative perspective. To do so, this article has adopted a mixed approach, based on the creation of a transparency index for two Swiss cantons and on interviews conducted with elected officials from 16 municipalities. The results show, on the one hand, that transparency practices diverge sharply between Swiss municipalities and, on the other hand, that autonomy does have an influence on the degree of transparency at the local level. They encourage further reflection on local government practices and methods to measure what they mean for relations between authorities and citizens. Points for practitioners In this article, the development of a transparency index provides an insight into the very diverse online information-dissemination practices of Swiss municipalities. It reveals that municipal autonomy has a positive impact on the degree of transparency at the local level. The interviews conducted also show that proximity to citizens makes it possible to circumvent the lack of resources available to smaller municipalities through more direct information channels. These results encourage proactive communication by elected municipal officials.

His current work focuses on transparency and citizens' trust in public authorities. Before his enrolment at IDHEAP, he worked as a program coordinator at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy