Varieties of Software and Their Implications for Effective Democratic Government
Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. 135, pp. 183-185, 2006
26 Pages Posted: 31 May 2006
Abstract
As governmental processes and judgments are increasingly digital, the transparency of digital systems that implement the processes of government becomes increasingly important. Open code is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for maintaining transparency as democracy becomes digitized, and complete openness of process is not appropriate for every domain. This chapter explores some of the complexities in the relationship between openness of code and democratic government.
Keywords: Business and Government Policy, Information Technology, Open Source, Open Code, free software, Peer production, Transparency
JEL Classification: H4, D73, N4, O3, H11
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation