5 - Trickling Down: Impact of the Global Movement on Open Government

Summary

Introduction

This chapter addresses the third main element of globalization that is seen as influencing civil servants, transparency and participation, and its channel of transmission: the global open government movement. This movement is driven by transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations, and bilateral development assistance agencies, and revolves around the related themes of freedom of information, participation, anti-corruption, new forms of accountability, and Open Data. As per the discussion in Chapter 1, our thesis is that this global movement has an impact on national civil servants and the potential to bring significant change to country-level governance systems.

We will hence focus on the impact of global pressure to shift from a traditional understanding of public administration and civil service towards open governance and transparency (Jreisat, 2009; Clarke and Francoli, 2014). In order to better understand this change, to establish if this is truly embodied in the behaviour of civil servants, and to acknowledge the intricacies and complexities that accompany the change, we will apply the analytical framework set out in Chapter 1, looking at both structural and behavioural dimensions, and determine what exactly the global pressures inherent in the open government movement are, which include the context to which they are transmitted (what are the formal rules, the operating environment), and if and how they are internalized (what determines whether civil servants internalize the values of open government).

The combination of an analysis of content, context, and process generates a new picture of the effects of global pressures on civil service systems and civil servants. The framework that results provides a clearer understanding of what changes in behaviour, beliefs, and values occur among civil servants, and also provides insights into how transnational organizations can drive or initiate governance innovations. Specifically, we will establish, first, the extent to which values for access to information are internalized in civil servants (whether socialization is happening), and, second, if participation of stakeholders in decision making occurs and is reflected in the behaviour of civil servants. This will then help us to categorize and classify the response patterns of civil servants in terms of the typology presented in Chapter 1.