Transparency and Regulation: Towards a Novel Conceptualization

The concept of transparency described by authors such as Broz (2002), Naurin (2007), and De Fine Licht (2014), has its roots in Kant’s concept of publicity, where he famously envisaged that ‘without publicity there would be no justice’ (Kant 1795, p. 50). Publicity, as described by Kant, can be opposed to privacy or secrecy, describing a situation where the public can observe what decision-makers are doing in the formulation and adoption of policy. Today’s politics is much about transparency, although in a different context of Kant’s world as web-based technologies can now set the basis for the implementation of his publicity principle. Transparency is desired not because it is considered a privilege, but because it is the basic foundation for modern political systems: access to information from public institutions is seen as a democratic, liberal and human right (Öberg, 1998; Curtin, 2000; Harden, 2001). Governments worldwide have thus taken steps towards more transparent government (Crepaz and Chari, 2017); organizations such as the OECD, EU, and Council of Europe (CoE) advocate for more transparent politics; and NGOs such as Transparency International place transparency high on their lobbying agendas. However, the literature lacks a cogent analysis of what exactly is meant by transparency and how this can be conceptualized.   In this paper, we provide much needed theoretical clarity around the often-invoked concept of transparency, critically evaluating the extant literature and developing a novel conceptualization of it by considering its ‘public’ and ‘private’ dimensions. The structure of the paper is three-fold. First, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature on transparency, examining established and alternative definitions. Secondly, turning to the idea of transparency in the sphere of public policy, we conceptualize how governments introduce transparency in politics along six regulatory dimensions: freedom of information laws, campaign finance regulations, lobbying regulations, conflict of interest regulations (ethics regulations), whistle-blower legislations, and open data policies. Finally, through analysis of corporate social responsibility reporting practices we extend our view of transparency to firms, considering ways states have sought to make businesses more transparent. This three-fold analysis will provide scholars with a comprehensive understanding of transparency regulations in the real world of politics, serving as a benchmark for future studies in this field.