Vision, Voice, and Technology: Is There a Global “Open Government” Trend?

Published date01 November 2020
DOI10.1177/0095399720918316
AuthorSabina Schnell
Date01 November 2020
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399720918316
Administration & Society
2020, Vol. 52(10) 1593 –1620
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0095399720918316
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Article
Vision, Voice, and
Technology: Is There
a Global “Open
Government” Trend?
Sabina Schnell1
Abstract
The article examines changes in the meaning and practice of government
openness around the world and identifies three trends. First, the technological
meaning of openness is increasingly supplanting rights-based interpretations.
Second, although more countries are joining global openness initiatives, on
average, governments are not becoming more transparent about their budgets
or their data. Third, although more governments are using online tools to
inform and consult citizens, space for civil society is shrinking. The article
concludes that technological tools for openness are not by themselves sufficient
for ensuring systemic government openness to genuine societal inputs.
Keywords
open government, transparency, participation, technology, democracy
“Open government” is being hailed as a new governance paradigm
(Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development [OECD], 2016).
At the same time, we also see an emerging democratic rollback around the
world (Diamond, 2015). This creates an apparent paradox. On one hand, the
rapid spread of information and communication technology (ICT) has opened
potential new avenues for citizens to become more informed about and
involved in government. On the other hand, some traditional avenues are
1Syracuse University, NY, USA
Corresponding Author:
Sabina Schnell, Maxwell School of Citizenship and International Affairs, Syracuse University,
Eggers Hall 400N, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
Email: dsschnel@syr.edu
918316AASXXX10.1177/0095399720918316Administration & SocietySchnell
research-article2020
1594 Administration & Society 52(10)
closing. From a techno-optimistic perspective of “government as a platform”
(O’Reilly, 2011) or “wiki government” (Noveck, 2009), this could be unprob-
lematic as long as the new, “technology-enhanced” avenues for openness
replace or enhance traditional ones. However, there is little evidence that
technology-based openness initiatives and tools1 have fulfilled their demo-
cratic promises (De Blasio & Selva, 2016; Hansson et al., 2015).
These contrasting trends raise the question, “Are governments around the
world really becoming more open?” To answer this question, the article first
reviews current and past interpretations of open government. Based on Meijer
et al.’s (2012) “vision” and “voice” definition of open government, it identi-
fies two possible conceptualizations: (a) a narrow one, that focuses on specific
openness tools, and which is particularly compatible with a technology-cen-
tered approach, and (2) a broad one that considers whether the overall system
of governance guarantees citizens’ vision and voice, which reflects more
closely the democratic valence of the term and is more compatible with rights-
based perspectives of openness. The second section of the article charts the
evolution of open government around the world. First, it provides a short his-
torical overview of international initiatives dedicated to promoting openness,
illustrating the shift in emphasis from rights to tools. Second, it uses available
cross-national data to plot global trends both in the use of openness tools by
governments—such as open budgets, open data, or online participation—and
in broader measures of government transparency (“vision”) and citizen par-
ticipation (“voice”). The data suggest that while governments do increasingly
use some “modern” tools, such as e-participation, to enhance openness, the
space for independent citizen “vision” and “voice” is indeed shrinking. The
third section discusses possible implications of these trends by reviewing
existing literature on how governments become more open and discussing the
scenario in which narrow openness (the use of openness tools) and broader
citizen vision and voice are most clearly in tension: that of autocratic coun-
tries. The article concludes that even if more countries, including more autoc-
racies, adopt online openness tools, governments around the world are not
necessarily becoming more open overall. Without legal guarantees for inde-
pendent citizen vision and voice, control over who gets informed, consulted,
or involved and when remains in the hands of governments. This risks closing
rather than opening governments to genuine societal inputs.
What Is Open Government?
Despite the popularity of “open government,” there is no policy consensus
about its definition. The former U.S. Government’s Directive and
Memorandum on Open Government defines it as a “system of transparency,

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