Dr Daniel Berliner

This course is available on the BSc in Government, BSc in Government and Economics, BSc in Government and History, BSc in International Social and Public Policy with Politics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and History, BSc in Politics and International Relations, BSc in Politics and Philosophy and BSc in Social Policy with Government. This course is not available as an outside option nor to General Course students.

This course is capped at one group.

Is “sunlight the best disinfectant”? Can information empower citizens to hold their government accountable? How have information technologies been used to enable civic engagement and participation? What are the relationships between transparency, secrecy, corruption, and accountability?

This course will familiarise students with the theory and practice of transparency and accountability in government, enabling them to critically address these questions and engage meaningfully in fast-moving contemporary policy debates.

The course will offer a grounding in theories of democracy, representation, and accountability, as well as debates over the merits of transparency in light of competing values like secrecy and privacy. The course will also enable students to evaluate the role played by different forms of information in political systems, as well as to critically assess the theories of change and assumptions behind information-based policy initiatives. 

The course has a global scope, focusing on applications in both developed and developing countries, and on policy types including freedom of information, information-based regulation, participatory budgeting, crowdsourced policymaking, “civic tech,” open data, campaign finance and asset disclosures, and applications of transparency to sectors like extractive industries, the environment, and public health.

15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 4 hours of workshops in the ST.

There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of LT.

Students will be expected to produce one formative essay of 1,000 words in the LT.

Fung, Archon. 2013. "Infotopia: Unleashing the democratic power of transparency." Politics & Society 41(2): 183-212.

Schedler, Andreas. 1999. “Conceptualizing accountability.” In The self-restraining state: Power and accountability in new democracies, Schedler, Andreas, Larry Diamond, and Marc F. Plattner, eds. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Fox, Jonathan A. "Social accountability: what does the evidence really say?" World Development 72 (2015): 346-361.

Stasavage, David. 2004. “Open-door or closed-door? Transparency in domestic and international bargaining.” International Organization 58(4): 667-703.

Tan, Yeling. 2014. "Transparency without democracy: The unexpected effects of China's environmental disclosure policy." Governance 27(1): 37-62.

Ackerman, John M., and Irma E. Sandoval-Ballesteros. "The global explosion of freedom of information laws." Administrative Law Review 58 (2006): 85.

Berliner, Daniel, 2014. “The political origins of transparency.” The Journal of Politics, 76(2), 479-491.

Gonçalves, Sónia. "The effects of participatory budgeting on municipal expenditures and infant mortality in Brazil." World Development 53 (2014): 94-110.

Worthy, Ben. 2015. “The impact of open data in the UK: Complex, unpredictable, and political.” Public Administration, 93(3), 788-805.

Roberts, Alasdair. 2012. "WikiLeaks: the illusion of transparency." International Review of Administrative Sciences 78(1): 116-133.

Essay (90%, 2500 words) and presentation (10%) in the ST.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.