The Maryland Public Policy Institute
STUDIES
JANUARY 30, 2009
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Transparency is critical to the effective participation of citizenry in a democratic government. In order to hold members of government accountable for their actions, citizens must be able to find relevant information without undue burden. In the past, interested citizens often had to go to a central location and search through physical records to obtain any sort of information about their government. Today, thankfully, the Internet has made obtaining such information much easier.
Still, the Internet does not work magic. Without cooperation from within a government, citizens can be quite limited in their ability to obtain information. Transparency, then, involves more than simple recognition that citizens need information about their government in order to participate in it. Transparency includes the understanding that it is the government's duty to make information about its workings widely and easily available.
Today, the most effective way of achieving this goal is through the use of the Internet. Government websites can offer an enormous amount of information to thousands of interested citizens simultaneously, serving constituents far more efficiently than a telephone system or public records hall ever could. Meetings can be recorded and streamed live, without issues of distance and capacity. All of these things are possible, but whether or not they are actually implemented by a particular government's website is another matter. Thus, the primary purpose of this report is to evaluate Maryland's state and county websites for effectiveness in fostering transparency.
To read the full report, click here
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