Abstract
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.
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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 65-83 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | International Review of Public Policy |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - Jun 1 2019 |