Editing Transparency (behavior)

{{Short description|Operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed}}
As an ethic that spans [[science]], [[engineering]], [[transparency (market)|business]], and the [[humanities]], '''transparency''' is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed. Transparency implies [[openness]], communication, and [[accountability]].

Transparency is practiced in companies, organizations, administrations, and communities.<ref>{{cite web|title=Opening government: A guide to best practice in transparency, accountability and civic engagement across the public sector|url=http://www.transparency-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Opening-Government3.pdf|website=Transparency Initiative|publisher=Transparency & Accountability Initiative|access-date=September 11, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218030712/http://www.transparency-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Opening-Government3.pdf|archive-date=February 18, 2017}}</ref> For example, in a business relation, fees are clarified at the outset by a transparent agent, so there are no surprises later. This is opposed to keeping this information hidden which is "non-transparent". A practical example of transparency is also when a cashier makes changes after a point of sale; they offer a transaction record of the items purchased (e.g., a receipt) as well as counting out the customer's change.

In [[information security]], '''transparency''' means keeping the arcane, underlying mechanisms hidden so as not to obstruct intended function—an almost opposite sense. It principally refers to security mechanisms that are intentionally undetectable or hidden from view.  Examples include hiding utilities and tools which the user does not need to know in order to do their job, like keeping the remote re-authentication operations of [[Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol]] hidden from the user.

==Wages==
In Norway and in Sweden, tax authorities annually release the ''"skatteliste''", ''"[[taxeringskalendern]]"'', or "tax list"; official records showing the annual income and overall wealth of nearly every taxpayer.<ref name="NY">{{cite news |title = Norway Divided by Citizen Wealth Tables|date = October 23, 2009|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/business/global/24tax.html?_r=2&ref=global|work = The New York Times|access-date = 22 November 2009}}</ref>

Regulations in Hong Kong require banks to list their top earners – without naming them – by pay band.<ref name='retreat'>{{cite news | first=Jill | last=Treanor | title=Government retreats over naming bank top earners - Top 20 highest paid employees now unlikely to be identified unless they have boardroom roles | date=22 November 2009 | url =https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/nov/22/banks-top-20-earners | work = [[The Guardian]] | access-date = 22 November 2009  }}</ref>

In 2009, the Spanish government for the first time released information on the net worth of each cabinet member, but data on ordinary citizens is private. Currently, elected officials have to disclose their net worth on a yearly basis.

An unwritten norm requires that American politicians release their tax returns, in particular those running for the office of president. During the [[2016 United States presidential election|2016 presidential campaign]], [[Tax returns of Donald Trump|Donald Trump refused to release them]], breaking a 47-year-old custom, but still got elected.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Krishnankutty|first=Pia|date=2020-09-28|title=All about tax returns by US presidents, and how Trump broke a 47-year-old custom|url=https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/all-about-tax-returns-by-us-presidents-and-how-trump-broke-a-47-year-old-custom/512004/|access-date=2021-03-14|website=ThePrint|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Buettner|first1=Russ|last2=Craig|first2=Susanne|last3=McIntire|first3=Mike|date=2020-09-27|title=Trump's Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html|access-date=2021-03-14|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Disis|first=Jill|date=2017-01-23|title=Presidential tax returns: It started with Nixon. Will it end with Trump?|url=https://money.cnn.com/2017/01/23/news/economy/donald-trump-tax-returns/index.html|access-date=2021-03-14|website=CNNMoney}}</ref>

==Management==
[[File:Shimer College dialogue transparency 2010.jpg|thumb|[[Shimer College]] students demonstrate in favor of transparency in school administration, 2010.]]
[[Radical transparency]] is a [[management]] method where nearly all decision making is carried out publicly. All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, all final decisions, and the decision making process itself are made public and remain publicly archived. This approach has grown in popularity with the rise of the [[Internet]].<ref>{{Cite book | first1= Marcia W. | last1= DiStaso | first2= Denise Sevick | last2= Bortree | title= Ethical practice of social media in public relations | page= 23 | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 9781317917908 | year= 2014 }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=MujpAwAAQBAJ Preview.]</ref> Two examples of organizations utilizing this style are the [[Linux]] community and [[Indymedia]].

[[Corporate transparency]], a form of radical transparency, is the concept of removing all barriers to—and the facilitating of—free and easy public access to corporate information and the laws, rules, social [[connivance]] and processes that facilitate and protect those individuals and corporations that freely join, develop, and improve the process.<ref>{{cite news | last1= Bernardi | first1= Richard A. |last2= LaCross |first2= Catherine C. | title= Corporate transparency: code of ethics disclosures | url= http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/405/essentials/p34.htm | work= The CPA Journal | publisher= New York State Society of the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) | date= April 2005 }}</ref>

In 2025 the [[Austria|Austrian]] [[Court of Audit]] argued that mistakes had been made in granting neither Austria's [[Ministry of Climate Action and Energy (Austria)|ministery of energy]] nor regulatory [[E-Control]] full access to gas contracts agreed upon between [[OMV]] and Russian [[Gazprom]]<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2025-01-10 |title=RH: Ministerium hätte OMV-Gasverträge einsehen müssen |url=https://www.orf.at//stories/3381396/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=news.[[ORF.at]] |language=de-AT}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Behörden sollen ihre Einsichtsrechte bei Erdgasunternehmen durchsetzen |url=https://www.rechnungshof.gv.at/rh/home/news/Meldungen_2025/Einsichtsrechte_bei_Erdgasunternehmen_durchsetzen.html |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Der Rechnungshof |language=de-AT}}</ref> in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |title=OMV gibt die sofortige Kündigung des österreichischen Liefervertrags mit Gazprom Export bekannt |url=https://www.omv.com/de/medien/pressemitteilungen/2024/241211-omv-gibt-die-sofortige-kundigung-des-osterreichischen-liefervertrags-mit-gazprom-export-bekannt |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=www.omv.com |language=de-AT}}</ref>

===Non-governmental organizations===
Accountability and transparency are of high relevance for [[non-governmental organisation]]s (NGOs). In view of their responsibilities to stakeholders, including donors, sponsors, programme beneficiaries, staff, states and the public, they are considered to be of even greater importance to them than to commercial undertakings.<ref name="huidobro-p60">{{Cite book | first1= Maria | last1= Francesch-Huidobro | title= Governance, politics and the environment: a Singapore study | page= 60 | publisher = Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) | isbn = 9789812308313 | year= 2008 }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=QrCqBmdZY5UC&pg=PA60 Preview.]</ref> Yet these same values are often found to be lacking in NGOs.<ref name="huidobro-p60"/>

The ''[[INGO Accountability Charter|International NGO Accountability Charter]]'', linked to the [[Global Reporting Initiative]], documents the commitment of its members [[international NGO]]s to accountability and transparency, requiring them to submit an annual report, among others.<ref>{{cite web | title = Is GRI too much transparency for NGOs? | url = http://prizmablog.com/2011/03/27/is-gri-too-much-transparency-porn-for-ngos/ | publisher = PRIZMA | date = March 27, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Our accountability commitments: transparency | url = http://www.ingoaccountabilitycharter.org/home/our-accountability-commitments/transparency/ | publisher = INGO accountability charter | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150329081613/http://www.ingoaccountabilitycharter.org/home/our-accountability-commitments/transparency/ | archive-date = 2015-03-29 }}</ref> Signed in 2006 by 11 NGOs active in the area of humanitarian rights, the INGO Accountability Charter has been referred to as the "first global accountability charter for the non-profit sector".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3Q0rFXjPQ4C&pg=PA214|title=Critical Mass: The Emergence of Global Civil Society|first1=James W. St G.|last1=Walker|first2=Andrew S.|last2=Thompson|date=February 21, 2008|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|isbn=9781554580224 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In 1997, the [[One World Trust]] created an ''NGO Charter'', a [[code of conduct]] comprising commitment to accountability and transparency.<ref>{{cite web | title = Charte des ONG (NGO Charter) | url = http://www.oneworldtrust.org/csoproject/cso/initiatives/358/charte_des_ong_ngo_charter | publisher = One World Trust | date = 1997 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110928052118/http://www.oneworldtrust.org/csoproject/cso/initiatives/358/charte_des_ong_ngo_charter | archive-date = 2011-09-28 }}</ref>

==Media==
{{Main|Media transparency}}
[[Media transparency]] is the concept of determining how and why [[information]] is conveyed through various means.

If the media and the public knows everything that happens in all authorities and county administrations there will be a lot of questions, protests and suggestions coming from media and the public. People who are interested in a certain issue will try to influence the decisions. Transparency creates an everyday participation in the political processes by media and the public. One tool used to increase everyday participation in political processes is [[freedom of information]] legislation and requests. Modern [[democracy]] builds on such participation of the people and media.

There are, for anybody who is interested, many ways to influence the decisions at all levels in society.<ref>{{cite news | last1= Moeller | first1= Susan D. | title= Openness & accountability: a study of transparency in global media outlets | url= http://www.icmpa.umd.edu/pages/studies/transparency/main.html | work= Studies | publisher= International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) | display-authors= etal | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080515174519/http://www.icmpa.umd.edu/pages/studies/transparency/main.html | archive-date= 2008-05-15 }}</ref>

==Politics==
{{more citations needed section|date=October 2011}}
[[File:Seal of Good Housekeeping plaque Santa Barbara Pangasinan.jpg|thumb|A 2011 [[Commemorative plaque|plaque]] recognizing the municipality of [[Santa Barbara, Pangasinan]] for its "efforts in advancing the principles of [[accountability]] and transparency in [[local governance]]" ]]
The right and the means to examine the process of decision making is known as transparency.
In politics, transparency is used as a means of holding [[official|public officials]] accountable and fighting [[political corruption|corruption]]. When a [[government]]'s meetings are open to the [[Mass media|press]] and the public, its [[budgets]] may be reviewed by anyone, and its laws and decisions are open to discussion, it is seen as transparent. It is not clear however if this provides less opportunity for the authorities to abuse the system for their own interests.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mattozzi | first1 = Andrea | last2 = Merlo | first2 = Antonio | title = The transparency of politics and the quality of politicians | journal = [[American Economic Review]] | volume = 97 | issue = 2 | pages = 311–315 | doi = 10.1257/aer.97.2.311 | date = May 2007 | url = https://authors.library.caltech.edu/8430/1/MATaer07.pdf }} [http://people.hss.caltech.edu/~andrea/transparency.pdf Pdf.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309122839/http://people.hss.caltech.edu/~andrea/transparency.pdf |date=2018-03-09 }}</ref>

When military authorities [[classified information|classify]] their plans as secret, transparency is absent. This can be seen as either positive or negative; positive because it can increase [[national security]], negative because it can lead to corruption and, in extreme cases, a [[military dictatorship]].

While a [[liberal democracy]] can be a [[plutocracy]], where decisions are made behind locked doors and the people have fewer possibilities to influence politics between the elections, a [[participative democracy]] is more closely connected to the will of the people.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}} Participative democracy, built on transparency and everyday participation, has been used officially in northern [[Europe]] for decades. In the northern European country [[Sweden]], [[Constitution of Sweden#Public access to governmental documents|public access to government documents]] became a law as early as 1766. It has officially been adopted as an ideal to strive for by the rest of EU, leading to measures like [[Freedom of information laws by country|freedom of information laws]] and [[Lobby register|laws for lobby transparency]].

To promote transparency in [[politics]], [[Hans Peter Martin]], [[Paul van Buitenen]] ([[Europa Transparant]]) and [[Ashley Mote]] decided to cooperate under the name Platform for Transparency (PfT) in 2005. Similar organizations that promotes transparency are [[Transparency International]] and the [[Sunlight Foundation]].

A recent political movement to emerge in conjunction with the demands for transparency is the [[Pirate Party]], a label for a number of political parties across different countries who advocate freedom of information, direct democracy, network neutrality, and the free sharing of knowledge.

==Online culture==

21st century culture affords a higher level of public transparency than ever before, and actually requires it in many cases.  Modern technology and associated culture shifts have changed how government works (see [[WikiLeaks]]), what information people can find out about each other, and the ability of politicians to stay in office if they are involved in [[sex scandals]]. Due to the [[digital revolution]], people no longer have a high level of control over what is public information, leading to a tension between the values of transparency and [[privacy]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Digital person: technology and privacy in the information age|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780814798461/page/140 140] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780814798461|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0814798461 |first=Daniel J. |last=Solove|year= 2004|publisher=NYU Press }}</ref>

==Research==

[[research|Scholarly research]] in any [[scientific method|academic discipline]] may also be labeled as (partly) transparent (or [[open research]]) if some or all relevant aspects of the research are open in the sense of [[open source]],<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Rocchini | first1 = Duccio | last2 = Neteler | first2 = Markus | title = Let the four freedoms paradigm apply to ecology | journal = [[Trends in Ecology & Evolution]] | volume = 27 | issue = 6 | pages = 310–311 | doi = 10.1016/j.tree.2012.03.009 | pmid = 22521137 | date = June 2012 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.296.8255 }}</ref> [[Open access (publishing)|open access]] and [[open data]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/engl_start.htm|title=Wissenschaftsrat: Home|work=wissenschaftsrat.de|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100417091550/http://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/engl_start.htm|archive-date=2010-04-17}}</ref> thereby facilitating [[Recognition (sociology)|social recognition]] and [[accountability]] of the scholars who did the research and [[Reproducibility|replication]] by others interested in the matters addressed by it.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Transparent science| volume=3|issue=1|doi=10.1093/embo-reports/kvf018|pmid=11799051|pages=9–11|journal=EMBO Reports|pmc=1083937|year=2002|last1=Peerenboom|first1=E.}}</ref>

Some [[mathematicians]] and scientists are critical of using closed source [[mathematical software]] such as [[Mathematica]] for [[mathematical proofs]], because these do not provide transparency, and thus are not verifiable.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://everything2.com/title/Mathematica+and+free+software|title=Mathematica and free software|work=everything2.com}}</ref> Open-source software such as [[SageMath]] aims to solve this problem.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.physorg.com/news116173009.html|title=Free software brings affordability, transparency to mathematics|publisher=physorg.com}}</ref>

==Technology==

In the computer software world, [[open source software]] concerns the creation of software, to which access to the underlying [[source code]] is freely available. This permits use, study, and modification without restriction.

In computer security, the debate is ongoing as to the relative merits of the [[Full disclosure (computer security)|full disclosure]] of security vulnerabilities, versus a [[Security through obscurity|security-by-obscurity]] approach.

There is a different (perhaps almost opposite) sense of [[Transparency (human–computer interaction)|transparency in human-computer interaction]], whereby a system after change adheres to its previous external interface as much as possible while changing its internal behaviour. That is, a change in a system is transparent to its users if the change is unnoticeable to them.

==Sports==

[[Sports]] has become a global business over the last century, and here, too, initiatives ranging from mandatory drug testing to the fighting of sports-related corruption are gaining ground based on the transparent activities in other domains.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.transparencyinsport.org/|title=Transparency in Sport|work=transparencyinsport.org}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=October 2011}}

==Criticism==

[[Sigmund Freud]], following [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] ("On Truth and Lie in a Nonmoral Sense"), regularly argues that transparency is impossible because of the occluding function of the unconscious.

Among philosophical and literary works that have examined the idea of transparency are [[Michel Foucault]]'s ''[[Discipline and Punish]]'' or [[David Brin]]'s ''[[The Transparent Society]]''. The German philosopher and media theorist [[Byung-Chul Han]], in his 2012 work ''Transparenzgesellschaft'', sees transparency as a cultural norm created by neoliberal market forces, which he understands as the insatiable drive toward voluntary disclosure bordering on the pornographic. According to Han, the dictates of transparency enforce a totalitarian system of openness at the expense of other social values such as [[shame]], [[secrecy]], and [[trust (social science)|trust]]. He was criticized for his concepts, as they would suggest corrupt politics, and for referring to the anti-democratic [[Carl Schmitt]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Klarheit schaffen|url=http://www.freitag.de/kultur/1223-klarheit-schaffen|work=der Freitag | language = de |date=7 June 2012 |access-date= 3 July 2012 |last1=Kraft |first1=Steffen }}</ref>

Anthropologists have long explored ethnographically the relation between revealed and concealed knowledges, and have increasingly taken up the topic in relation to accountability, transparency and conspiracy theories and practices today.<ref>Strathern, M. 2000. Audit Cultures: Anthropological Studies in Accountability, Ethics and the Academy. London: Routledge.</ref><ref>Hetherington, K. 2011. Guerrilla Auditors: The Politics of Transparency in Neoliberal Paraguay. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=ReadCube for Researchers|website=Readcube.com|volume=35|issue=2|pages=160–166|doi=10.1111/j.1555-2934.2012.01196.x|year = 2012|last1 = Ballestero s|first1 = Andrea|hdl=1911/79642|url=https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/1911/79642/3/TransparencyinTriads.pdf|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Todd Sanders and Harry West, for example, suggest not only that realms of the revealed and concealed require each other, but also that transparency in practice produces the very opacities it claims to obviate.<ref>Sanders, Todd & Harry G. West 2003. Powers revealed and concealed in the New World Order. In H. G. West & T. Sanders (eds) Transparency and Conspiracy: Ethnographies of Suspicion in the New World Order. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, p. 16.</ref>

Clare Birchall, Christina Gaarsten, Mikkel Flyverbom, Emmanuel Alloa and Mark Fenster, among others, write in the vein of "critical transparency studies", which attempts to challenge particular orthodoxies concerning transparency. In an article, Birchall assessed "whether the ascendance of transparency as an ideal limits political thinking, particularly for western socialists and radicals struggling to seize opportunities for change". She argues that the promotion of "datapreneurial" activity through open data initiatives outsources and interrupts the political contract between governed and government. She is concerned that the dominant model of governmental data-driven transparency produces neoliberal subjectivities that reduce the possibility of politics as an arena of dissent between real alternatives. She suggests that the radical left might want to work with and reinvent secrecy as an alternative to neoliberal transparency.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Birchall | first = Clare | title = Transparency interrupted: secrets of the left | journal = [[Theory, Culture & Society]] | volume = 28 | issue = 7–8 | pages = 60–84 | doi = 10.1177/0263276411423040 | date = December 2011 | s2cid = 144862855 }}</ref>

Researchers at the [[University of Oxford]] and [[Warwick Business School]] found that transparency can also have significant unintended consequences in the field of medical care. Gerry McGivern<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://warwick.academia.edu/GerryMcGivern|title=Gerry McGivern &#124; University of Warwick - Academia.edu|website=warwick.academia.edu}}</ref> and Michael D Fischer<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oxford.academia.edu/MichaelFischer|title=Michael D Fischer &#124; University of Oxford - Academia.edu|website=oxford.academia.edu}}</ref> found "media spectacles" and transparent regulation combined to create "spectacular transparency" which has some perverse effects on doctors' practice and increased defensive behaviour in doctors and their staff.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=McGivern|first1=Gerry |last2=Fischer|first2=Michael D. |title=Medical regulation, spectacular transparency and the blame business|journal=Journal of Health Organization and Management |year=2010|volume=24|issue=6|pages=597–610 |pmid=21155435 |doi=10.1108/14777261011088683}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=McGivern|first1=Gerry |last2=Fischer|first2=Michael D. |title=Reactivity and reactions to regulatory transparency in medicine, psychotherapy and counselling|journal=[[Social Science & Medicine]]|date=1 February 2012|volume=74|issue=3|pages=289–296 |doi=10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.09.035|pmid=22104085|url=http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/45260/1/WRAP_McGivern_McGivern__Fischer_SSM_2012_Reactivity__Reactions_to_Regulatory_Transparency_in_Medicine_Psychotherapy__Counselling_%28Authors%27_version%29.pdf}}</ref> Similarly, in a four-year organizational study, Fischer and Ferlie found that transparency in the context of a clinical risk management can act perversely to undermine ethical behavior, leading to organizational crisis and even collapse.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fischer|first1=Michael D. | last2 = Ferlie | first2 = Ewan |title=Resisting hybridization between modes of clinical risk management: Contradiction, contest, and the production of intractable conflict|journal=[[Accounting, Organizations and Society]] |date=1 January 2013|volume=38|issue=1|pages=30–49 |doi=10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.002|s2cid=44146410 |url=https://researchbank.acu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1701&context=flb_pub }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col}}
*[[Access to public information]]
*[[Ethical banking]]
*[[Lobbying]]
*[[Market transparency]]
*[[Open government]]
*[[Open science]]
*[[Open society]]
*[[Public record]]
*[[Transparency of media ownership in Europe]]
*[[Whistleblower]]
*[[Whitewash (censorship)|Whitewash]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Emmanuel Alloa & Dieter Thomä (eds.). ''Transparency, Society and Subjectivity: Critical Perspectives''. Basingstoke, UK: PalgraveMacmillan, 2018.
* Emmanuel Alloa (ed.). ''This Obscure Thing Called Transparency: Politics and Aesthetics of a Contemporary Metaphor''. Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2022.
* Michael Schudson, ''The Rise of the Right to Know: Politics and the Culture of Transparency, 1945–1973''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.

{{Social accountability}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Transparency (behavior)| ]]
[[Category:Humanities]]
[[Category:Politics by issue|Transparency]]
[[Category:Public economics]]