Transparency in South American Central Governments

Abstract

The term “transparency” in economics and finance is defined very broadly as a process by which information about existing conditions, decisions, and actions is made accessible, visible, and understandable. Transparency is understood as the effective flow of information or as the process in which the information is prepared and disclosed in a safe, understandable, and timely manner (IMF Working Group 1998; Kopits and Craig 1998; Vishwanath and Kaufmann 1999). In particular, transparency is the opposite of secrecy (Florini 2000). One of its main underlying assumptions is that transparency is always closely connected to accountability. Transparency in public administration gives greater openness about political and economic decisions and promotes the accountability of organizations (ibid.). Therefore, the need to estab lish transparency mechanisms is essential to improve public managers’ decision-making and to optimize the information then disclosed to the citizens. Finally, economic development and transparency go together. Logically, transparency is negatively correlated with corruption and posi tively correlated with economic development. Corruption and socioeconomic development indicators help analyze how countries have evolved and how they are positioned relatively to each other, to support transparency. It is impor tant to realize how these countries have behaved and the main differences because the best trans parency practices can serve as example for the others.