Use: Accountability uses of PI

The following indicator is under consideration for this pilot edition of the Barometer: To what extent is there evidence of political integrity data being used to identify, expose, or highlight failures of government?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

Political integrity data offers key tools for public oversight of governance processes and officials. When political integrity data is available, actors both inside and outside government have greater opportunities to identify, expose, and highlight failures of government, for example:

• Journalists might use political integrity data to trace financial flows across donors, parties, and officials when investigating corrupt networks.
• Civil society organizations might file amicus briefs opposing the implementation of a specific regulation, citing public participation data as grounds for challenging its legitimacy.
• Academics might analyze and report on problems in government decision-making, using information obtained through freedom of information requests.
• Businesses might use lobbying data to identify unfair advantages held by competitors and organize industry-wide responses through relevant professional organizations.
• Civil society organizations might draw on financial disclosures to generate ethics scorecards for different agencies or officials.

For this indicator, we focus on accountability uses by actors outside government, including media, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, and individual members of the public. We prioritize institutionalized actors, though for lower scores on this metric, accountability uses by individual members of the public (as opposed to members of organized civil society or academia) may also be taken into account. However, for higher scores there should be evidence that the use of data for accountability purposes has become institutionalized.

It is important to note, however, that while we focus this indicator on accountability for failures of government, political integrity data often confirms that officials or electoral candidates or others are maintaining a high standard of integrity—and these, too, are important examples of using political integrity data for accountability purposes, though not the focus of this indicator.

Research Guidance

Starting points

• Sources:

  • For Latin America, NDI Honduras is conducting a (forthcoming) mapping of society monitoring initiatives that may provide relevant examples. Their tentative list includes:
    • Observatorio Electoral Argentino (Argentina)
    • Observatorio para el control de gastos de campaña (Argentina)
    • Índice de transparencia en los partidos políticos (Chile)
    • Elecciones y contratos (Colombia)
    • Monitor Ciudadano de la Corrupción (Colombia)
    • Cuentas Claras- Observatorio al Financiamiento de la Política (Ecuador)
    • Centro de Monitoreo de Transparencia y Democracia: Datos abiertos del financiamiento de la política (El Salvador)
    • Centro de Monitoreo de Transparencia y Democracia: Mapa de Financiamiento por donantes y sectores (El Salvador)
    • Centro de Monitoreo de Transparencia y Democracia: Índice de transparencia financiera (El Salvador)
    • Foro Social de Deuda Extrerna y Desarrollo (Honduras)
    • Tres de Tres (Mexico)
    • Quién te financia (Peru)
  • For countries in Africa, the Cost of Politics series by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy may include relevant examples, though these draw from various evidence sources, such that the role that political integrity data plays for any country will need to be carefully assessed, as will the involvement of relevant civil society organizations, journalists, and other local actors.

• Search:

  • News media for articles about money in politics, corruption, conflicts of interest, ethics violations by government officials, financial scandals, and lobbying.
  • Websites of local civil society organizations that focus on corruption, transparency, and accountability.
  • Google Scholar, arXiv, or ResearchGate for examples of academic research drawing on political integrity data.

• Consult:

  • Journalists who cover government beats or have particular expertise in corruption or financial networks.
  • Officials of civil society organizations that focus on corruption, transparency, or accountability in government, and/or organizations that focus on strengthening participatory democracy.
  • Scholars at local universities who work on money in politics, public participation in government, and RTI.

What to look for?

Focusing in turn on the media, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector, look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• Does this kind of actor regularly use some form of political integrity data for accountability purposes? Or do they perhaps only use such data infrequently? Or never, as far as you can determine?
• Do only certain kinds of political integrity data seem to be being used? Are others largely neglected?
• What kinds of impacts do you see from these uses, and how significant are these impacts?

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Is there evidence of this data being used for accountability purposes?
  • No evidence of actors or entities using this data for accountability purposes.
  • There are isolated cases of actors or entities using this kind of data for accountability purposes, though the source may not be open data.
  • There are a number of cases of actors or entities using this kind of open data for accountability purposes.
  • There are widespread and regular cases of actors or entities using this kind of open data for accountability purposes.

Elements

• User groups:

• The media regularly uses this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

• Civil society organizations regularly use this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

• Scholars or academic institutions regularly use this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

• The private sector regularly uses this data for accountability purposes. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially or Yes: Please briefly explain and provide one or more examples of the most significant uses you're aware of.

  If Partially or Yes: Is there evidence that this data has been invoked disproportionately with regard to gender or membership in a marginalized population?

Extent

• There is evidence that these uses are having meaningful positive impacts.
  • No
  • Partially

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

  • Yes

    Supporting questions: Please briefly explain and provide URLs to relevant evidence.

Indicator Justification

Political integrity data is a key tool not only for identifying whose interests shape how governance decisions are made and implemented, but for supporting officials to maintain a high standard of integrity—and providing evidence to hold officials accountable when they fail to do so.

Various actors work to hold officials accountable, including the media, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, and individual members of the public; these actors may mobilize political integrity data in different ways.

Our focus on accountability uses of political integrity data aligns with SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, particularly its targets around rule of law (16.3); transparent, accountable institutions (16.6); responsive, inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making (16.7); and public access to information (16.10).