Proactive disclosure of public information: legislative choice worldwide

Fatores influenciadores da divulgação de informação e do acesso à informação dos municípios

Resumo A transparência e o acesso à informação são importantes para o escrutínio público, a participação e a responsabilidade, contribuindo para a confiança dos cidadãos no governo. Para aumentar o acesso à informação pública, os governos locais têm recorrido à transparência ativa através da divulgação de informação pública nos seus websites, com acesso livre e aberto. Este estudo analisa a influência de fatores socioeconômicos e políticos na gestão das políticas públicas de transparência ativa nos municípios portugueses. O estudo utiliza a metodologia de dados de painel, que ainda não foi empregada para examinar a transparência municipal ativa em Portugal, testando empiricamente os fatores que impactam a divulgação da informação pública, valendo-se do índice de transparência como um proxy. Foram encontradas evidências empíricas em relação aos fatores políticos e socioeconômicos que influenciaram o nível de transparência municipal. Uma vez que os estudos sobre o caso português são escassos, esta pesquisa contribui para a compreensão das respostas dos municípios às pressões da sociedade por mais transparência.

What municipal websites supply and citizens demand: a search engine optimisation approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if citizens’ searches on the internet coincide with the services that municipal websites offer. In addition, the authors examine municipal webpage rankings in search engines and the factors explaining them.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical study, conducted through a sample of Spanish city councils, contrasted if the information that can be found on a municipal website fits with citizens’ demands. This has been done by comparing the most-searched keywords with the contents of municipal websites.

Findings

A positive relationship between the supply and demand of municipal information on the internet has been found, but much can still be improved. Analysed administrations rank the basic data of the organisation, as well as some of the fundamental competences thereof, at the top in search engines, but the results are not entirely effective with some keywords still highly demanded by citizens, such as those related to employment or tourism. Factors explaining internet ranking include the number of pages of the municipal website, its presence in social networks and an indicator designed to measure the difficulty of ranking the municipal place-name.

Originality/value

The results obtained from this study provide valuable information for municipal managers. Municipal websites should not only include information in which citizens are interested, but achieve accessibility standards, have a responsive web design, and follow the rules of web usability. Additionally, they should be findable, which also requires improvement in terms of the design of the municipal website thinking in search engines, particularly in terms of certain technical characteristics that improve findability. A municipal website that wants to have a good positioning should increase its contents and attain the maximum degree possible of visibility in social networks.