Transparency (politics)

In politics and in political discourse, transparency is a requirement or a state of freely accessible information that is considered worthwhile and a constant account of processes, facts, projects and decision-making processes. Associated with this is the idea of open communication between the actors in the political system (or the administration) and the citizens and increased participation . The terms administrative transparency and the principle of the public go in a similar direction . Optical transparency is used as a metaphor : a transparent object can be seen through (cf. for example " Transparent Member ").

argumentation

Proponents of extensive transparency justify their demand or the ideal as follows:

Transparency is an essential part of democracy and fundamental for free will formation and well-founded voting decisions.
Feedback function : transparency enables citizens to perceive problems, to express complaints and to learn and discuss suggestions for improvement and to communicate these to the political representatives. This allows the representative to perceive the pressing problems and consequently work more efficiently.
Transparency urges the politician to implement the wishes of the citizens and is thus an incentive for loyalty and closeness to the citizen (disciplinary effect)
Transparency prevents abuse of power and corruption, in that everyone can find out about what is happening in order to then agitate and take action against it, if necessary, and by making politicians accountable.
An inherent openness in political processes and communication strengthens the trust of the citizens in the government (s).

In political science and in negotiation theory , criticism is expressed of the principle of transparency. Too much transparency could cause side effects and problems that would affect government activity and ultimately the form of government. Conversely, less transparency could also result in advantages.

In a transparent system, politicians are tempted to present themselves as the strongest representatives of interests (profiling). This harbors the risk that excessive negotiating positions would be adopted, which would cause any compromise to fail and thus lead to an inefficient policy.
Politicians may change their minds despite better knowledge due to public pressure.
Thick discussions might still be conducted in non-transparent circles that are hardly accessible. The agreements made there would then be passed in a transparent committee without detailed discussion.
Less transparency offers politicians a space for discussion and enables an initially impartial exchange on publicly precarious topics.

Legal regulations

A number of states have enshrined political transparency as a fundamental right in their constitution. Freedom of information laws and legislative initiatives exist in more than 65 countries .

Sweden

Legal transparency has a long tradition in Sweden - it was introduced in 1766 with the Freedom of the Press Act ( Tryckfrihetsförordningen ) and is part of the Swedish Constitution and is the first law of its kind.

Germany

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the Freedom of Information Act (“Act regulating access to federal information”) has been in force. For members of the German Bundestag and state parliaments, there is an obligation to disclose additional income (see also Membership Compensation and Membership Bribery ).

Federal states

(As of mid-2020)

Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland eV and Mehr Demokratie eV divide the development of the freedom of information and transparency laws in the federal states into three stages:

Federal states without legal regulations - Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony
Federal states with freedom of information laws, according to which information must be released upon request - Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein
Federal states with transparency laws that also oblige the authorities to publish central data independently - Bremen, Hamburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia

country	Total ranking , as of mid-2020	IFG / TG IFG = Freedom of Information Act, TG = Transparency Act		introduced	last modified	Left to the source, overview: transparenzranking.de to the details ...
(D) Bund	38%	IFG-Bund "Law regulating access to federal information"		2006	2013	... / bund
Baden-Württemberg	32%	IFG	"State Freedom of Information Act Baden-Württemberg"	2016		... / Baden-Wuerttemberg
Bavaria	0%	-				... / Bavaria
Berlin	61%	IFG	"Law to Promote Freedom of Information in Berlin"	1998	2016	... / berlin
Brandenburg	39%	IFG	"File Inspection and Information Access Act"	1998	2013	... / brandenburg
Bremen	63%	IFG	"Law on Freedom of Access to Information for the State of Bremen"	2006	2015	... / Bremen
Hamburg	66%	TG	"Hamburg Transparency Act"	2012		... / hamburg
Hesse	12%	Part of the state data protection law		2018		... / hesse
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	41%	IFG	"Law regulating access to information for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania"	2006	2011	… / Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Lower Saxony	0%	-				... / Lower Saxony
North Rhine-Westphalia	45%	IFG	"Law on Freedom of Access to Information for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia"	2001		... / nrw
Rhineland-Palatinate	56%	TG	"State Transparency Law Rhineland-Palatinate"	2016		... / Rhineland-Palatinate
Saarland	38%	IFG	"Saarland Freedom of Information Act"	2006	2015	... / Saarland
Saxony	0%	-				... / saxony
Saxony-Anhalt	38%	IFG	"Saxony-Anhalt Information Access Act"	2008		... / Saxony-Anhalt
Schleswig-Holstein	65%	IFG	"Information Access Act"	2012	2017	... / Schleswig-Holstein
Thuringia	58%	TG	"Thuringian Transparency Act"	2012	2020	... / thuringia

In Hamburg , a transparency law has guaranteed the publication of documents since 2012 . In 2011, together with Transparency International Germany and the Chaos Computer Club, Mehr Demokratie submitted a popular initiative for a transparency law in the Hanseatic city. The law was written on an open wiki. As the first federal state in Germany, the Hanseatic city decided to introduce a comprehensive transparency law, which officially came into force on October 6, 2012. The state is thus obliged to make official information available to all citizens free of charge on the Internet. These include, for example, expert opinions, senate resolutions and contracts from 100,000 euros that relate to services of general interest.

The quality of the freedom of information laws in the federal states varies greatly. Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen regard the associations Mehr Demokratie and Open Knowledge Foundation Germany as more positive cases, Hesse as a negative example. In Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Saxony there are still no freedom of information laws at state level.

In North Rhine-Westphalia citizens have the right to public inspection of documents and files of the public administration. In April 2013, the alliance of the Taxpayers' Association, Mehr Demokratie and Transparency International (Germany) presented the campaign and the draft law for a transparency and freedom of information law based on the Hamburg model to the public. Until December 2013, all interested citizens could comment on the draft law and make suggestions for improvement. The transparency alliance has checked the comments and suggestions for improvement and is currently incorporating good suggestions into the draft law. The draft law was handed over to the state parliament on February 19, 2014 with the request that this proposal for a transparency law be taken into account as far as possible in the state parliament's deliberations.

In Lower Saxony , the coalition stipulated in its coalition agreement in 2013 that it would like to introduce a transparency law based on the Hamburg model, but this has not yet happened. More democracy is currently (2016/17) networking with other actors.

In Berlin lies Open Knowledge Foundation Germany eV (together with others, including more democracy eV) a draft Transparency Law publicly discuss and write in an open wiki. A referendum was then successfully carried out, and the Senate is currently examining the draft law. The goals are, similar to the Hamburg example:

Facilitate co-determination
Prevent tax waste
building up trust
Simplify administrative processes

Transparency in business

There is also an obligation of transparency in some areas of the economy (see also consolidated financial statements , disclosure requirement ).

In North Rhine-Westphalia there is a remuneration disclosure law for public companies (e.g. savings banks), as well as in Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland.

Extraordinary regulation

European Union

Since the European Union, as a supranational organization, has no constitution, there is no constitutional basis for transparency. However, the interinstitutional agreement on the introduction of a transparency register was an important milestone in revealing the influence of interest groups in the decision-making process. The register enables everyone to find out about the lobbyists who communicate with the institutions of the European Union. Since it was set up in 2011, the register has been continuously modified. Registration is voluntary and is considered a deficit for critics.

On December 3, 2001, Regulation 1049/2001 came into force, giving EU citizens the right to official information from EU authorities.

literature

Emmanuel Alloa, "How transparency becomes censorship unnoticed", in: Süddeutsche Zeitung June 27, 2017 ( [2] )
Emmanuel Alloa & Dieter Thomä (eds.) Transparency, Society and Subjectivity. Critical Perspectives , Basingstoke: PalgraveMacmillan, 2018.
Fairbanks, Jenille et al .: Transparency in government communication. In: Journal of Public Affairs. No. 7, 2007, pp. 23-37.
Kopits & Craig: Transparency in government operations. Washington, 1998, ISBN 1-55775-697-X ( books.google.de ).
Kristin M. Lord: The Perils and Promise of Global Transparency. New York, 2006, ISBN 0-7914-6885-2 .
David Stasavage: Does Transparency Make a Difference . London, 2005 ( politics.as.nyu.edu PDF; 140 kB).
David Stasavage: Open-Door or Closed-Door? Transparency in Domestic and International Bargaining . In: International Organization No. 58, 2004 ( eprints.lse.ac.uk PDF; 403 kB).
Joseph E. Stiglitz : Transparency in Government. In: The Right to Tell. World Bank Publications, Washington 2002, ISBN 0-8213-5203-2 . ( books.google.de ).
Manfred Schneider : A dream of transparency. Literature, politics, media and the impossible. Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-082-8 .

Web links

abgeordnetenwatch.de - website of Parlamentwatch eV (Because transparency creates trust)
transparenzranking.de - Website Transparency Ranking Germany from Open Knowledge Foundation Germany eV and Mehr Demokratie eV
followthemoney.org - Website of the National Institute on Money in State Politics (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Do we need more transparency? | bpb. Retrieved July 23, 2020 .

↑ tagesschau.de: Freedom of information: Great openness in Sweden. Retrieved July 23, 2020 .

^ Anne Stoltenberg, Stockholm: Freedom of information: Sweden's citizens watch over state files . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed July 23, 2020]).