Promoting Sustainability Transparency in European Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis Based on Administrative Cultures

Abstract

Nowadays, the transparency of governments with respect to the sustainability of public services is a very interesting issue for stakeholders and academics. It has led to previous research and international organisations (EU, IMF, OECD, United Nations, IFAC, G-20, World Bank) to recommend promotion of the online dissemination of economic, social and environmental information. Based on previous studies about e-government and the influence of administrative cultures on governmental accountability, this paper seeks to identify political actions useful to improve the practices of transparency on economic, social and environmental sustainability in European local governments. We perform a comparative analysis of sustainability information published on the websites of 72 local governments in 10 European countries grouped into main three cultural contexts (Anglo-Saxon, Southern European and Nordic). Using international sustainability reporting guidelines, our results reveal significant differences in local government transparency in each context. The most transparent local governments are the Anglo-Saxon ones, followed by Southern European and Nordic governments. Based on individualized empirical results for each administrative style, our conclusions propose useful policy interventions to enhance sustainability transparency within each cultural tradition, such as development of legal rules on transparency and sustainability, tools to motivate local managers for online diffusion of sustainability information and analysis of information needs of stakeholders.

Evaluating and fostering transparency in local administrations

“…They concluded that the most transparent local governments are the Anglo-Saxon, followed by the Southern European and the Nordic. In addition, they confirmed the influence of administrative traditions on transparency (Navarro Galera et al, 2017).…”

“…Similarly, Navarro-Galera et al (2014) studied the transparency about sustainability of 33 local governments on the websites of seven European countries, to compare Anglo-Saxon and Nordic areas. They used a questionnaire of 75 items based on the Global Reporting Initiative, about the publication of information on public-sector sustainability, incorporating economic, social and environmental vectors.…”

COVID-19 Impacts on the Sustainable Development in Latin America: An Investigation on the Environmental Law and Policy

“…It is an opportunity to rethink urban environmental policies to achieve SDG 11 as society tries to recover from an unprecedented social crisis. At the same time, the observed increase in deforestation reopens academic and political debates about the role of national parks, indigenous reserves, and other categories of protection in a context of deteriorated lifestyles, illegal economies, and a lack of state presence [12,[86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93].…”

Trends in the Sustainability Reporting in Italian LGOs: Better Stick or Carrot?

“…The attention on sustainability matters in Local Governments is one of the core themes of Agenda 21 [18] and the transparency on social, environmental and governance information in LGOs is an issue also at European level [19].…”

“…The literature on the sustainability reporting in LGOs is concentrated in particular on the content of SR in a single country, as introduced for example by Greco, Sciulli and D'Onza [26], or in a multicultural context [19], discussing European LGOs in sustainability disclosure and linking it with the administrative culture.…”