Democracy, transparency and accountability: transparency portals assessment framework

Abstract

The need for transparency and accountability elements in government acts have been highly requested by the population that has claimed for a country that is more transparent, more worth living, more democratic. The Brazilian public administration has been adopting regulatory practices, as well as, transparency measures, to encourage social control since the Constitution of 1988. This research aimed at devising, through thorough literature review of academic publishing in the area, an assessment framework which featured elements of democracy, accountability, and transparency. The model was called TLS, for it takes theoretical, legal and social aspects into account in its assessments. A checklist parting from eight original models was obtained, with 109 assessment items. The model was applied on the transparency portal of the Brazilian state of Goiás - and evaluated on a five-level scale, where the website has reached the third level of transparency. After compiling the research results, it was concluded that, although the portal has good quality functional characteristics, a wide range of information and services, it does not fully contribute to the exercise of social control by the citizen, because there are no spaces for interaction, lack of incentive for social participation and some information is not provided in a timely manner, which hinders the dialogue between government and society.