Open government in authoritarian regimes

Open government has long been regarded as a pareto-eicient policy – after all, who could be
against such compelling policy objectives as transparency, accountability, citizen engagement
and integrity. his paper addresses why an authoritarian state would want to adopt a policy
of open government, which may irst seem counter-intuitive, and tracks its outworking by examining
several facets of the policy in practice. he research uncovers evidence of insidious
bureaucratic obstruction and an implementation deicit counter-posed with an outward-facing
political agenda to gain international respectability. he result is ‘half-open’ government in
which the more benign elements have been adopted but the vested interests of government and
business elites remain largely unafected.