Transparency policies in Italy : the case of Venice municipality

Transparency is a complex phenomenon characterised by aspects that can be linked and interpreted differently. In particular transparency is associated with information and participation. In order to better understand how to manage transparency in a municipality, the paper analyses the case of Venice that adopted a strong policy to increase citizen participation through information and communications technology (ICT). Starting with the idea that transparency is achieved only when perception of transparency between management and citizens (users) is aligned, the author has verified this alignment administering the same questionnaire separately to managers/officers and citizens. The author also analyses the alignment of perception for the different elements (motivation, issues, tools and relation) that administration has to manage to achieve transparency. The results show that for managing administration’s transparency it is necessary to manage the “transparency triangle”, i.e., addressing the information to a specific necessity of access to services or to citizen participation, with a different mix of high relational tools.http://arl.liuc.it/dspace/handle/2468/3546