Different aspects of transparency in digital government: The danish case

Ayo Næsborg Andersen, Hanne Marie Motzfeldt

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The public sector in Denmark is the most digitized in the world. Recent years have, however, shown that transparency is challenged, and public debate has exploded. The focus has in many ways been on a lack of transparency, but the public debate has been muddled by a lack of clarity on what the term means. This paper identifies four different aspects of transparency when it comes to digital government. This is transparency of algorithms, and of data, as well as of the decision processes when digitalization and development are initiated. The latter can be divided into transparency of administrative decisions, and of democratic debate. The democratic transparency has been sorely lacking in Denmark leading to a significant democratic deficit in digital government. This is due to very low transparency when decisions on digitization measures are presented for the democratic elected representatives. The latter in particular calls for more research, since lack of democratic transparency poses a danger to the stability of democratic societies.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 19th European Conference on Digital Government, ECDG 2019
EditorsTugberk Kaya
Number of pages8
PublisherAcademic Conferences Limited
Publication date1 Jan 2019
Pages81-88
ISBN (Electronic)9781912764402
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019
Event19th European Conference on Digital Government, ECDG 2019 - Nicosia, Northern Cyprus, Cyprus
Duration: 24 Oct 201925 Oct 2019

Conference

Conference19th European Conference on Digital Government, ECDG 2019
Country/TerritoryCyprus
CityNicosia, Northern Cyprus
Period24/10/201925/10/2019
SeriesProceedings of the European Conference on e-Government, ECEG
Volume2019-October
ISSN2049-1034

Keywords

  • Algorithm transparency
  • Data
  • Democracy
  • Digital government
  • Digitalization
  • Legislative process
  • Transparency

Cite this