Reflections on the principle of transparency:

towards cross-fertilization with participation?

Abstract

This article starts from the Brazilian government’s decision to silence a part of data production on the damage caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in order to propose a reflection on changing the principle of transparency and its relation to public policy. In retracing the complex nature of myth and the myth-producing space, by examining some constitutional texts and formalized participatory practices, the text asks how the relations between two major areas of public action could be structured more solidly: promotion of transparency and civic participation in government action. The two fields seem to have many structural convergences, even in the gradual emptying of meanings proposed by political rhetoric, and their growing dialogue in many countries highlights the mutual ability to learn and fertilize, if immediately thought through in their mutual interaction. The analysis of how the relation between transparency and democratic innovations has tended to structure itself in recent years shows that the latter are necessary, but not sufficient to guarantee a high level of transparency, which requires addressing structural problems related to political and administrative organization, resources, widespread mentality, and public communication in a given context. At least, they are not sufficient when the context does not impose challenging goals of radically rethinking participation, through ‘networking’ movements that may – by crossing various experiments – collectively reflect new ways of putting participatory actions into a dialogue promoted ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up.’