The Transparency Game: Government Information, Access, and Actionability
Date
2020-03-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Repository Usage Stats
views
downloads
Citation Stats
Abstract
Democratic governments might be required by law to disseminate information to the people. This is called governmental transparency. What is the burden of transparency? We propose a “pragmatic information theory of communication” that places information accessibility as a foundation of transparency. Using a game model—the Transparency Game—we show that the pragmatic theory is the only one that makes it difficult for governments to appear transparent (transparency de vidi) while not actually being transparent (transparency de facto). There are two important consequences of understanding transparency through the theory: (1) Accessible information must be actionable, and (2) cognitive science plays a vital role in assessing the accessibility of information. These consequences can have implications for public policies that promote transparency.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Subjects
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Vakarelov, O, and K Rogerson (2020). The Transparency Game: Government Information, Access, and Actionability. Philosophy and Technology, 33(1). pp. 71–92. 10.1007/s13347-019-0340-z Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/30140.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
Kenneth S. Rogerson
Kenneth S. Rogerson is Professor of the Practice at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, and former Research Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. He is currently the University's faculty advisor for the BN Duke Scholars. He has served as chair of the American Political Science Association’s Information Technology and Politics Section and the International Studies Association's International Communication Section.
Rogerson earned a PhD in Political Science at the University of South Carolina, where his research focused on international relations, international communications and media policy issues. In his dissertation, he examined the evolution of U.S. foreign information policy. He has a Masters of Arts degree in International Relations and a BA in Journalism and European Studies from Brigham Young University.
Rogerson runs research projects on digital equity through Sanford School’s Tech Policy Lab, including work on technology in education, equitable device distribution, and digital divide issues. He serves on the board of the US national organization Digitunity, which works to provide technology to underserved populations.
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.