From opacity to transparency? Evaluating access to information in Brazil five years later

Abstract

How well is Brazil’s access to information (ATI) law working five years after passage? And what can be done to improve it? Drawing on official data as well as nine evaluations of compliance with ATI obligations, interviews with policymakers, and archival research, this paper provides descriptive and inferential statistics on compliance with ATI requests and indicators of implementation. Results show that less than one in every two requests in Brazil obtains a response from agencies, and more than 50% of requests exceed the time limits established in the law. Evidence of weak commitments to ATI are also illustrated by the paucity of several key indicators of compliance, including statistics on requests, declared commitments to ATI, ATI-specific platforms for making requests, and designated oversight institutions. Brazil urgently needs to invest in greater information management, empowering oversight institutions to implement and adjudicate ATI obligations.

Googling the requester: Identity‐questing and discrimination in public service provision

“…Even though this study advances no causal estimation for the impact of channels in the sending of requests, it is worth noting that Web‐based FOI request‐and‐response platforms were significantly correlated with FOI compliance, as expected based on previous findings (Bizzo & Michener, ; Michener et al, ). These results indicate that sending requests through a specific access to information platform is associated with a 27% increase ( SE = 0.04; p < .01) in the probability of receiving a compliant response, as compared to requests submitted through an agency's e‐mail.…”

“…Not all municipalities start from the same level when it comes to complying with FOI laws (Worthy et al, ). We assume that the difference in our sample—which represents Brazil's largest cities—generally has to do with commitments to FOI (Michener et al, ). According to evidence presented by Bizzo and Michener () and Michener et al (), responsiveness is significantly higher where municipalities have implemented a Web‐based request‐and‐response platform.…”

“…People at first agreed to participate, but later refused when they became aware of the need to self-identify. The deterrent effect of identity obligations may be contributing to what the literature has recognized as a demographically limited pool of requesters, namely those that are male university-educated professionals (Cuillier & Piotrowski, 2009;Michener, Contreras, & Niskier, 2018;Neuman, 2016;Piotrowski & Van Ryzin, 2007).…”

“…We assume that the difference in our sample-which represents Brazil's largest cities-generally has to do with commitments to FOI . According to evidence presented by Bizzo and Michener (2017) and Michener et al (2018), responsiveness is significantly higher where municipalities have implemented a Web-based request-and-response platform. Thus, we included this variable in order to control for this effect.…”

Gauging the Impact of Transparency Policies

“…Such areas are often the most straightforward. Government statistics from Brazil and anecdotal evidence from other countries show that public servants make significant use of FOI laws (Michener, Contreras, and Niskier , 618–19). The insight that public servants rely on transparency signals information and intragovernmental communication deficits.…”