The Right to Information: Transparency Initiatives in Authoritarian Regimes

• In Event: Law as Mechanism of Authoritarian Rule

Abstract

Authoritarian regimes tend to hide information about their rule from their own citizens and other states. Various scholarship has uncovered different techniques of information distortion, censorship, and media control. At the same time, some autocracies disclose information about the work of their governments, the income of bureaucrats and politicians, procurement contracts and more, thereby adopting transparency initiatives similar to democratic ones. Given their usual preference for secrecy, why are these disclosures happening – and what are their effects?
In the paper I explore the state and society interactions in the implementation of the regulations on open government information in Russia. Analyzing the law, its various modifications and implementation, I find that while the law provides citizens with a legal tool to interact with the state, administartive agencies still have too much discretion in deciding which information they are willing to disclose. The initiative itself provides citizens with tools to demand accountability from the government. However, various rules and regulations make the implementation of the policy not very transperent. Therefore, even though the adoption of OGI initiatives might lead to more demand for the information, it is not enough to elicit social mobilisation.

Author

• Evgeniia Mitrokhina, U of Wisconsin-Madison