Open Government

Chapter 27. Bringing the Web 2.0 Revolution to Government

Gary D. Bass

Sean Moulton

President Barack Obama has promised the most open and transparent government in the history of the United States. Sounds like great news. However, we know from experience that he will run into many barriers. In this chapter, we identify three such barriers, provide suggested solutions, and conclude with an example using federal spending to show how to move transparency into the twenty-first century.

Government Transparency: Three Hurdles

President Obama, on his first full day in office, sent a memo to agency heads saying that his administration will be guided by transparency, increased participation, and improved collaboration. The memo stated that the administration is “committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government,” adding that greater openness “will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government.”^[184] (See the Appendix A.) Of course, saying this is much easier than achieving it.

Six months into the Obama administration, Maura Reynolds wrote in Congressional Quarterly that, “In practice, the new president’s record on government secrecy and transparency has turned out to be decidedly mixed, with his administration seeming to take as many steps toward shielding government information as it has toward exposing it to the sunshine.”^[185] She described one example of the Obama administration refusing to disclose records about coal company executives’ ...