Beyond Transparency: Rethinking Election Reform from an Open Government Perspective

Abstract

During the past decade, “transparency” has become a focus of democratic governance. Open government and right to know regimes have been around at least since the 1970s. They include measures, like open meeting laws, campaign finance disclosure, lobbying registration, and freedom of information laws. But the Open Government projects – variously referred to as eDemocracy, Open Data, or Government 2.0 – have evolved into something new and different. They view transparency not primarily as a right to know, but as a condition for a more efficient, intelligent, and cooperative form of democratic government. This article considers how various election reform projects fit with the Open Government model and considers the new opportunities that such projects generate.

Keywords: Transparency, election law, voting rights, open government, disclosure, legal theory, Edemocracy, Government 2.0, FOIA, freedom of information, open meeting laws, access to government