Different Aspects of Transparency in Digital Government: the Danish Case

Ayo Næsborg-Andersen; Hanne Marie Motzfeldt

Different Aspects of Transparency in Digital Government: the Danish Case

Ayo Næsborg-Andersen, Hanne Marie Motzfeldt

CIIR - Centre for Information and Innovation Law

Abstract

The public sector in Denmark is the most digitized in the world. Recent years have, however, shown that transparency is challenged, and public debate has exploded. The focus has in many ways been on a lack of transparency, but the public debate has been muddled by a lack of clarity on what the term means. This paper identifies four different aspects of transparency when it comes to digital government. This is transparency of algorithms, and of data, as well as of the decision processes when digitalization and development are initiated. The latter can be divided into transparency of administrative decisions, and of democratic debate. The democratic transparency has been sorely lacking in Denmark leading to a significant democratic deficit in digital government. This is due to very low transparency when decisions on digitization measures are presented for the democratic elected representatives. The latter in particular calls for more research, since lack of democratic transparency poses a danger to the stability of democratic societies.

Original language	Danish
Publication date	25 Oct 2019
Publication status	Published - 25 Oct 2019
Event	ECDG 2019 : 19th European Conference on Digital Government - Cyprus International University, Italy Duration: 24 Oct 2019 → 25 Oct 2019 https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecdg/

Conference

Conference	ECDG 2019 : 19th European Conference on Digital Government
Location	Cyprus International University
Country/Territory	Italy
Period	24/10/2019 → 25/10/2019
Internet address	https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecdg/

Cite this

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title = "Different Aspects of Transparency in Digital Government: the Danish Case",

abstract = "The public sector in Denmark is the most digitized in the world. Recent years have, however, shown that transparency is challenged, and public debate has exploded. The focus has in many ways been on a lack of transparency, but the public debate has been muddled by a lack of clarity on what the term means. This paper identifies four different aspects of transparency when it comes to digital government. This is transparency of algorithms, and of data, as well as of the decision processes when digitalization and development are initiated. The latter can be divided into transparency of administrative decisions, and of democratic debate. The democratic transparency has been sorely lacking in Denmark leading to a significant democratic deficit in digital government. This is due to very low transparency when decisions on digitization measures are presented for the democratic elected representatives. The latter in particular calls for more research, since lack of democratic transparency poses a danger to the stability of democratic societies.",

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