Factors and their relationships in measuring the progress of open government

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the main factors influencing government openness, develop a global government openness index (GGOI) for assessing the progress of government openness and investigate how the factors contribute to the advancement of open government by individual countries and country groups by income. Design/methodology/approach This study identifies the four factors and adopts them into four variables for making GGOI: accountability (ACC), citizen participation and freedom (CPF), transparency (TRA) and information and communication technology (ICT). To calculate GGOI, panel data for 134 countries from 2006 to 2015 were used. Findings GGOI scores constantly improved with an annual growth rate of 2.09 percent. Countries with high ACC values tend to have high TRA scores, resulting in high GGOI scores. While the differences in ACC and TRA were steady over the period, ICT increased the most in all groups. To boost ICT performance as a channel to support other variables, middle-income countries should make further effort for citizens to use ICT capabilities toward enhancing the levels of CPF and TRA. Research limitations/implications This study presents a global picture of the advancement of open government and provides insights into specific areas that can be diagonalized. Practical implications The GGOI could be used as a useful assessment tool to measure the progress of government openness in countries and implement policies and action plans for improving government openness. Originality/value The GGOI covers the areas related to legal, administrative, participatory and technological factors and provides the factors’ inter-relationships for the composition of GGOI.

How to Improve Government Openness for Sustainable Development: The Interaction of Four Factors in African Countries

“…With regard to research on open government, there are several global index studies that provide the world's progress scores in open government, such as the Global Open Data Index [20], International Open Data Charter [21], Open Data Readiness Assessment [22], Open Government Index [23], Open Government Standards [24], and Global Government Openness Index [25,26]. These indices provide various aspects of government openness with different factors for the world [26].…”

“…With regard to research on open government, there are several global index studies that provide the world's progress scores in open government, such as the Global Open Data Index [20], International Open Data Charter [21], Open Data Readiness Assessment [22], Open Government Index [23], Open Government Standards [24], and Global Government Openness Index [25,26]. These indices provide various aspects of government openness with different factors for the world [26]. For example, the Open Government Standards [24], developed by Access Info Europe, assess open government with a focus on the right of access to information and consist of three core areas (e.g., accountability, transparency, and participation).…”

“…Among the existing indices with various viewpoints and focuses, Park and Oh's study examined the different factors and their relationships used in the existing indices and identified that the four factors of the OGP, including "the common aspects of the existing indices and contain broader coverages of open government related aspects comprehensively and impartially" [26] (p. 21). The UN ECA [9] also remarked that open government is based on the philosophy that democracy is a participatory process in which citizens have access to legal rights and play a part in the process, which builds the transparency and accountability of government.…”

“…Thus, to facilitate the process, the broader and balanced aspects of open government are important. Thus, the Global Government Openness Index adopted the four factors to measure the degree of open government with 134 countries [26]. This study also adopts the four factors of the Global Government Openness Index as a conceptual framework for estimating African countries' Government Openness Index (AGOI), including: (1) accountability (ACC hereafter), (2) transparency (TRA hereafter), (3) citizen participation and freedom (CPF hereafter), and (4) information and communication technology (ICT hereafter).…”

“…According to the coverage of the four factors of the conceptual framework, data sources are adopted from the same existing datasets in developing a Global Government Openness Index (GGOI) [26]. As seen in Table 1, the twelve datasets are taken from internationally authoritative institutions, the most frequently used in relevant fields and reliable data sources (e.g., United Nations, World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House, and Transparency International) to ensure data quality.…”