Public Participation and Transparency: Does Open Governance Promote Inclusion and Accountability?

Openness and inclusion have become key criteria in liberal democracies with which to assess the transparency, accountability, and participatory potential of policymaking spaces. The Open Government Partnership (OG) even considers these dimensions as central policy areas that its member States pursue in order to advance the openness agendas declared in their open governance action plans. This study evaluates the inherent dimensions of transparency and public participation by assessing the OGP open data on policy commitments in the areas of fiscal openness, public service delivery, and inclusion from the perspective of transparency-based policy framework. The study offers a longitudinal-comparative approach, qualitatively analysing the role of transparency and public participation within the number of commitments, the level of completion, and the performance reported in each action plan submitted to the OGP. The analysis will centre on five cases, each highlighting different stages and different engagement levels to the OGP structures and principles. The findings highlight underlying tendencies in multi-level governance models regarding governments' goals and their (self-)reporting biases vis-a-vis independently assessed performance. The study offers policymakers and stakeholders a critical insight into potential lines of action to improve inclusion and accountability within an open governance paradigm.