| Journal: | Revista del CLAD Reforma y democracia |
| Database: | CLASE |
| System number: | 000286616 |
| ISSN: | 1315-2378 |
| Authors: | Arellano Gault, David1 |
| Institutions: | 1Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas A.C, México, Distrito Federal. México |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Season: | Feb |
| Number: | 40 |
| Pages: | 53-80 |
| Country: | Venezuela |
| Language: | Español |
| Document type: | Artículo |
| Approach: | Analítico, crítico |
| Spanish abstract | Este artículo presenta un análisis crítico de las estrategias organizativas para introducir políticas de transparencia en organizaciones gubernamentales. A partir de esta crítica a los límites de una visión economicista, se propone el acercamiento a una estrategia que busque hacer endógena la transparencia como un criterio organizacional. La idea principal es plantear la transparencia como un concepto no cargado de expectativas racionalistas y discursivas, sino recuperarla como un instrumento limitado y falible de transformación organizativa. Para ello, se realiza un recorrido breve de los argumentos organizativos que sostendrían una visión de este tipo, en contra de una perspectiva economicista. Se proponen las "fallas de transparencia" como un instrumento útil para diagnosticar y dirigir las organizaciones hacia la incorporación del criterio de transparencia como un mecanismo endógeno de mejora organizacional |
| English abstract | Freedom of information has become a major political issue in Mexico's public administration debate. It seems like "transparency", by itself, is always and in any circumstance, a right issue to advocate or propose. This phenomenon is producing counterintuitive effects, since the "transparency" concept is kind of empty: is a metaphor without clear conceptual definition (at the extreme of the metaphor, something completely transparent would not allow to see anything inside). Moreover, the problems for implementation and the negative unexpected outcomes are simply not considered in the design and rhetoric of transparency laws and regulation in Mexico. This article advances an analysis of the assumptions of the "transparency" movement that have prevailed in the debate. These assumptions basically stem from the New Economic Institutionalism (NEI) which establishes that a transparency policy is basically a battle between the "good" (the transparent) and the "bad" (the bureaucrats and politicians, the "opaque" actors by nature). The "battle for transparency" then, according to this approach, is one where there are only "right" and "wrong" behaviors, leaving no space to discuss that transparency needs to be also an endogenous organizational movement where transparency of information actually might lead to more security and efficiency or safety for people inside the organizations or even the public (something is not necessarily automatic in the short and medium term, as many empirical studies are showing). This limited metaphor unfortunately has negative effects once this policy has to be implemented by several public organizations without any regard to the practical and organizational necessities or culture |
| Disciplines: | Ciencia política |
| Keyword: | Gobierno, Rendición de cuentas, Transparencia, Instituciones gubernamentales, Información pública, México |
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