The implementation of transparency policies in most populated Spanish municipalities: path dependency or institutional shock?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24965/gapp.i27.10888Keywords:
Transparency, local governments, implementation, institutional change, questionnaireAbstract
Local governments in Spain have implemented a variety of norms of transparency during the last years, both at the national and regional level. All this normative corpus established different kinds of principles and obligations to all public organisations, including the more than 8,000 Spanish local governments. This work intends to explore the implementation process of the norm(s) of transparency by Spanish local governments in larger municipalities. In particular, our research question is to what extent these norms have triggered organisational and institutional change and transparency performance of local governments. To do so, we use data from a survey taken by local governments and the analysis of their web pages to track effective implementation of transparency policies. The article discusses the determinant factors of this process of implementation: whether it responds to the existence of internal path dependency or to the exogenous establishment of legal norms and obligations. Results suggest a combined effect-both exogenous factors such as legal norms and previous performance of local governments should be taken into account to explain levels of institutional change and performance in transparency by local governments.
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