The open government initiative and the "new Egypt" : a comparative perspective

Abstract EN

The open government agenda has gained momentum over the past decade.

It is now widely acknowledged that greater openness benefits not only citizens but also government itself, by prompting better record management, making decisions and services more efficient and at best, serving as a safeguard against misgovernment and corruption.

Open government is defined as ‘the transparency of government actions, the accessibility of government services and information and the responsiveness of government to new ideas, demands and needs’.

Together, these three building blocks are seen to support a number of benefits for government and societies: improving the evidence base for policy making, strengthening integrity, discouraging corruption and building public trust in government.

The purpose of this paper is also to introduce indicators for measuring government openness.

Existing open government indicators focus either on the presence of key laws and institutions, or on citizens’ perceptions of government performance.