Open government in authoritarian regimes

Open government has long been regarded as a pareto-eicient policy – after all, who could beagainst such compelling policy objectives as transparency, accountability, citizen engagementand integrity. his paper addresses why an authoritarian state would want to adopt a policyof open government, which may irst seem counter-intuitive, and tracks its outworking by examiningseveral facets of the policy in practice. he research uncovers evidence of insidiousbureaucratic obstruction and an implementation deicit counter-posed with an outward-facingpolitical agenda to gain international respectability. he result is ‘half-open’ government inwhich the more benign elements have been adopted but the vested interests of government andbusiness elites remain largely unafected.