Transparency and Quality of Information on Local Administration WebsitesStudy of the Spanish Case

  1. Núria Simelio i Solà 1
  2. Francisco Javier Herrero Gutiérrez 2
  3. Pedro Molina Rodríguez-Navas 1
  1. 1 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
    info

    Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

    Barcelona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/052g8jq94

  2. 2 Universidad de Salamanca
    info

    Universidad de Salamanca

    Salamanca, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02f40zc51

Revista:
Observatorio (OBS*)

ISSN: 1646-5954

Año de publicación: 2020

Volumen: 14

Número: 4

Páginas: 1-20

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.15847/OBSOBS14420201588 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Observatorio (OBS*)

Resumen

This article analyses the information and content of Spanish local administration websites following the application of the Law of Transparency. The aim is to analyze in depth issues related to the information available on political representatives, the management of economic resources, information on the municipality and the tools citizens have at their disposal for their participation. The quantitative method analyses the transparency of the city councils individually from a table of widely compared 52 variables (indicators), validating their compliance or not with each during the period February to November 2018. The sample analyzed in this study consists of 605 Spanish municipalities. Although within academic literature debate already exists that focuses primarily on theoretical abstractions, this study allows us to empirically determine whether after the national approval of transparency regulation there really has been an improvement in public information for citizens to be able to hold their local governments accountable. The results indicate that, based on regional and national transparency policies, the situation is better than in the years prior to the law, although there is still much room for improvement, especially in issues related to information regarding the management of economic resources such as budgets, salaries, hiring and subsidies.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Anderson, T. B. (2009). E-government as an anti-corruption strategy. Information Economics and Policy, 21(3), 201-210.
  • Bauhr, M., & Grimes, M. (2014). Indignation or Resignation: The Implications of Transparency for Societal Accountability. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions, 27 (2), 291–320.
  • Bertot, J. C.; Jaeger, P. T., & Grimes, J. M. (2012). Promoting transparency and accountability through ICTs, social media, and collaborative e-government. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 6(1), 78-91.
  • Bertot, John C., P. T. Jaeger, & Justin M. Grimes. (2010). Using ICTs to Create a Culture of Transparency: E-government and Social Media as Openness and Anti-corruption Tools for Societies. Government Information Quarterly, 27 (3), 264–271.
  • Beltrán, P., & Martínez, E. (2016). Grado de cumplimiento de las Leyes de transparencia, acceso y buen gobierno, y de reutilización de los datos de contratación de la Administración central española. [Degree of compliance with the Laws of Transparency, access, and good governance and of the Reuse of procurement data from the Spanish central government] El profesional de la información, 25 (4), 557-567.
  • Bonsón, E., Lourdes Torres, S. R., & Flores, F (2012). Local E-government 2.0: Social Media and Corporate Transparency in Municipalities. Government information quarterly, 29 (12), 123–132.
  • Calvo Gutiérrez, E. (2013). Comunicación política 2.0 y buen gobierno. [Political communication 2.0 and good governance] In: Römer-Pieretti, M.. (Ed.) Miradas a las pantallas en el bolsillo. [Looks at the screens in your pocket] (pp. 70-80). Madrid: Universidad Camilo José Cela.
  • Cameron, W. (2004). Public accountability: Effectiveness, equity, ethics. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 63(4), 56-67.
  • Campillo, C. (2012). Investigación en comunicación municipal: estudios y aportaciones académicas. [Municipal communication research: academic studies and contributions] Revista de Comunicación Vivat Academia, Special Issue, 1035–1048.
  • Cardoso de Miranda, E.A. & Muñoz Cañavate, A. (2015). Los sitios web como servicios de información al ciudadano: un estudio sobre los 308 ayuntamientos de Portugal. [The websites and information services to citizens: a study of 308 municipalities in Portugal] Anales de Documentación, 18 (1).
  • Cuillier, D., & Piotrowski, S. J. (2009). Internet Information Seeking and Its Relation to Support for Access to Government Records. Government Information Quarterly, 26, 441–449.
  • Da Cruz, N.F., Tavares, A.F., Marques, R.C., Jorge, S., & de Sousa, L. (2015). Measuring Local Government Transparency. Public Management Review. 18 (6).
  • Da Cruz, N. F., & Marques, R. (2014). Scorecards for Sustainable Local Governments. Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, 39, 165–170.
  • Gandía, J. L., Marrahí, L., & Huguet, D. (2016). Digital transparency and Web 2.0 in Spanish city councils. Government Information Quaterly, 33 (1), 28-39.
  • Garriga Portolà, M. (2011). ¿Datos abiertos? Sí, pero de forma sostenible. [Open data? Yes, but in a sustainable way] El profesional de la información, 20 (3), 298-303.
  • Gértrudix, M., Gertrudis Casado, M. C., & Álvarez García, S. (2016). Consumption of public institutions’ open data by Spanish citizens. El profesional de la información, 25 (4), 535-544.
  • Giménez Chornet, V. (2012). Acceso de los ciudadanos a los documentos como transparencia de la gestión pública. [Public access to documents supports transparency in public administration] El profesional de la información, 21 (5), 504-508.
  • Grassler, M. (2018). El rol del periodista de datos en el proceso de los sistemas de gestión y decisión pública y en la recuperación de la confianza entre el ciudadano y las instituciones públicas. [The role of data journalists in the process of management and public decision systems and in the recovery of trust between citzens and public institutions] (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/462769
  • Grimmelikhuijsen, S., Proumbescu, G., Hong, B., & IM. T. (2013). The Effect of Transparency on Trust in Government: A Cross-National Comparative Experiment. Public Administration Review 73 (4), 575– 586.
  • Herrero-Gutiérrez, Francisco-Javier; Martínez-Vallvey, Fernando; Tapia-Frade, Alejandro; Rey-García, Pablo; & Cabezuelo-Lorenzo, Francisco (2017). Transparencia en el sector público a través de salas de prensa online. Gestión de recursos colectivos y su información en webs municipales. [Public sector transparency through online press rooms. Management of collective resources and information on city websites of Castile and León, Spain] El profesional de la información, 26 (3), 421-429.
  • Innes, J. E., & Booher, D. (2004). Reframing Public Participation: Strategies for the 21st Century. Planning Theory & Practice 5 (4), 419–436.
  • Jaeger, P. T., & Bertot, J. C. (2010). Transparency and Technological Change: Ensuring Equal and Sustained Public Access to Government Information. Government Information Quarterly, 27, 371–376.
  • Jessop, B. (2003). Governance and Metagovernance: on Reflexivity, Requisite Variety, and Requisite Irony. Governance, Governmentality, and Democracy. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Kaufmann, D. & Bellver, A. (2005). Transparenting Transparency: Initial Empirics and Policy Applications. Retrieved from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=808664
  • King, C. S., Feltey, K. M., & Susel, B. (1998). The Question of Participation: Toward Authentic Public Participation in Public Administration. Public Administration Review 58 (4), 317–326.
  • Kim, S., & Lee, J. (2012). E-Participation, Transparency, and Trust in Local Government. Public Administration Review, 72 (6), 819–828.
  • Lindstedt, C., & Naurin, D. (2010). Transparency is Not Enough: Making Transparency Effective in Reducing Corruption. International Political Science Review, 31 (3), 301–322.
  • Lizcano, J. (2010). Corrupción y transparencia: el ámbito municipal. [Corruption and transparency at the municipal level] Economía exterior: estudios de la revista Política Exterior sobre la internacionalización de la economía española, 54, 137–144. doi: 10.3145/epi.2017.may.03
  • Manfredi-Sánchez, J. L.; Corcoy-Rius, M.; & Herranz-de-la Casa, J. M. (2017). Breaking news? Journalistic criteria in the publication of news on Spanish municipal websites (2011-2016). El profesional de la información, 26(3), 412-420. doi: 10.3145/epi.2017.may.07
  • Manfredi, J. L. (2014). Buenas y malas noticias sobre la ley de transparencia. [Good and bad news about the transparency law] Cuadernos de Periodistas, 27, 72-80.
  • Martínez, M., & Rosende, S. (2011). Participación ciudadana en las agendas 21 locales: cuestiones críticas de la gobernanza urbana. [Citizen participation in local agendas 21: critical questions of urban governance] Scripta Nova. Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales, 25 (355). Retrieved from: http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-355.htm
  • Molina Rodríguez-Navas, P.; Simelio Solà, N.; & Corcoy Rius, M. (2017). Methodology for transparency evaluation: procedures and problems. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 72, 818–831.
  • Moreno, A., Molina, P. & Simelio, N. (2017). El impacto de la legislación sobre transparencia en la información publicada por las administraciones locales. [The impact of legislation on the transparency in information published by local administrations] El profesional de la información, 26 (2), 370-380.
  • Peters, G. (2000). Governance and Comparative Politics”. In Jon Pierre (Ed.) Debating Governance: Authority, Steering, and Democracy, (pp. 36–53). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Pina, V., Torres, L., & Royo, S. (2010). Is E-Government Promoting Convergence towards More Accountable Local Governments? International Public Management Journal 13 (4), 350–380.
  • Piotrowski, S. J., & Bertelli, A. (2010). Measuring Municipal Transparency. 14th IRSPM Conference, Bern, April.
  • Ramió Matas, C. (1999). Corrientes neoempresariales versus corrientes neopúblicas: cultura administrativa, valores públicos y credibilidad social. Un planteamiento radical. [Neo-business currents versus neopublic currents: administrative culture, public values and social credibility. A radical approach] Instituciones y Desarrollo, 5, 65–97.
  • Rivero, J. Á.; Mora, L.; & Flores, S. (2007). Un estudio de la rendición de cuentas a través del e-gobierno en la administración local española. [A study of accountability through e-government in the Spanish local administration] Retrieved from: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/2521491.pdf
  • Simelio, N. & Molina, P. (2014). Public communication and citizen participation. The use of Twitter in Catalan local councils. Historia y Comunicación Social, 19, 479-490.
  • Stivers, C. (2008). Governance in Dark Times: Practical Philosophy for Public Service. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
  • Tolbert, C. J., & Mosserger, K. (2006). The Effects of E-Government on Trust and Confidence in Government. Public Administration Review 66 (3), 354–369.
  • Villoria-Mendieta, M. (2011). La rendición de cuentas en la democracia. [Accountability in democracy] Temas para el debate, 204. Madrid: Iniciativas Editoriales Sistema.
  • Villoria-Mendieta, M., & Jiménez-Sánchez, F. (2012). La corrupción en España (2004-2010): datos, percepción y efectos. [Corruption in Spain (2004-2010): Data, Perception and Consequences] REIS. Revista española de investigaciones sociológicas, 138, 109-134.
  • Welch, E. W., Hinnant, C. C., & Moon. M. J. (2005). Linking Citizen Satisfaction with E-Government and Trust in Government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15 (3), 371–391.
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet