杏吧论坛

Dr Daniel Berliner

This course is available on the MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Studies, MSc in European and International Public Policy, MSc in European and International Public Policy (杏吧论坛 and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Public Policy (杏吧论坛 and Sciences Po), MSc in Global Politics, MSc in Political Science and Political Economy, MSc in Public Administration and Government (杏吧论坛 and Peking University), MSc in Public Policy and Administration and Master of Public Policy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and demand is typically very high.

This course is capped at 2 groups.

Is “sunlight the best disinfectant”? Can information empower citizens to hold their government accountable? Can greater public participation and deliberation improve policymaking? How have information technologies been used to enable civic engagement? What are the relationships between transparency, participation, accountability, and corruption?

This course will familiarise students with the theory and practice of transparency, accountability, and public participation in government; enabling them to critically address these questions and engage meaningfully in fast-moving contemporary policy debates. Policy innovations based on transparency, participation, and deliberation are increasingly suggested as potential solutions to contemporary crises of government legitimacy and performance, making such critical understanding more crucial than ever.

The course will offer a grounding in theories of democracy, representation, and accountability, as well as debates over the merits of different types of policy innovations that are often called “open government” or “democratic innovations.” The course will also enable students to evaluate the role played by different forms of information in political systems, as well as to critically assess the theories of change, assumptions, and evidence bases behind these initiatives.

The course has a global scope, focusing on applications in both developed and developing countries as well as at a global level; and on policy types including freedom of information, disclosure-based regulation, participatory budgeting, citizens’ assemblies, crowdsourced policymaking, “civic tech,” open data, campaign finance and asset disclosures, and applications of tr