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Internet against government corruption

November 18th, 2009 · by David Bradley >> 5 Comments

    Can the internet prevent government corruption? You’re probably never going to meet an entirely honest politician, but according to a statistical study by US researchers of 170 countries the internet could provide the tools necessary to reduce corruption significantly.

    Martha García-Murillo of the School of Information Studies, at Syracuse University, New York, modeled political, economic and technological factors. She found that “red tape”, good governance and freedom of the press all had a greater effect on whether or not there was apparent corruption within a particular government.

    According to García-Murillo:

    Corruption is a problem that needs to be controlled, if not completely eliminated. Because of the multiple causes of corruption, it is advisable that governments use the internet as one of the many tools available to them to fight corruption.

    Conversely, the internet gives power to the people allowing activists and independent lobbyists to hook up and campaign more easily, it allows information regarding dodgy deals and instances of corruption to reach the public domain much more readily, and can provide an open access route to government.

    There are three ways in which the internet can directly reduce corruption, according to García-Murillo. Through electronic government initiatives, processes and procedures can be implemented to improve the manner in which state officials interact with the private sector and the public at large. These automated or semi-automated processes can limit the opportunities that government employees have to extort money.

    Secondly, electronic government initiatives can also support the democratic process by allowing people to know more about their government representatives and, in the long term, by facilitating participation in elections.

    These first two components of reducing corruption rely to some extent on the corruption being localized within government rather than being a government-wide issue. If the latter problem exists, then one would suspect that there are much deeper issues to address within a particular society than whether or not “voters” have the opportunity to send email to their government representatives.

    However, García-Murillo’s third point regarding how the internet might reduce government corruption emerges from the fact that the internet has become just as important, if not more so, than the traditional media, the press, radio, and TV. Politicians may feel more restrained from engaging in corrupt activities if their every move is tweeted or blogged instantaneously. And, once a mal-fact about them is out there, it will remain permanently visible. On the internet no one can ever forgive and forget.

    Research Blogging IconMartha García-Murillo (2010). The effect of internet access on government corruption Electronic Government, An International Journal, 7 (1), 22-40

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    5 responses so far ↓

    • ilona@israel // Nov 26, 2009 at 9:04 pm

      Good idea to change society’s view of corruption and instill in them the knowledge that they can do something constructive about putting a stop to it.

    • Asdas // Dec 4, 2009 at 5:58 am

      Attempts at suppressing negative press are hardly unheard of in this country — corporations try to do it all the time (Steve Jobs, your iPhone is buzzing). Few of them pursue it so aggressively, though, or try to stomp out the sources of bad news. Whether The TCI Journal survives probably depends on whether they can afford to pay attorneys to protect them.

    • Gregg // Dec 19, 2009 at 8:03 am

      I just finished reading a literary work by Dan Gillmor called We The Media. Gillmor talks extensively about government corruption and how technological advancement coupled with the internet is societies first real chance to combat this corruption. Through an emerging global conversation packed with knowledge as well as the evolution of citizen journalism, society finally has the tools it needs to stand up to centralized government. Check out http://ourcorruptsociety-gvanorden.blogspot.com for detailed analysis about these issues.

    • kay sieverding // Dec 20, 2009 at 4:23 am

      5 USC section 552a(u) The Privacy Act allows citizens to complain when the US government collects, disseminates or uses information about them without an authorized use or refuses to correct wrong information. However, USDOJ does not have a Privacy Act complaint form and when it gets Privacy Act Complaints it apparently throws them in the trash. All federal agencies are supposed to have Data Integrity Boards and make annual reports including complaints and remedial actions but USDOJ doesn’t make the reports and it apparently doesn’t take remedial actions. Homeland Security created a “Privacy and Civil Liberties Office” which made “annual reports” in 2006 and 2007 but then stopped. So the Internet can simply be evaded by governments refusing to report. As you probably know there are fewer reporters than ever and they are apparently afraid to be the first to report on corruption. So you may get reports on some kinds of corruption but other corruption is still kept secret.

    • andy // Jan 16, 2010 at 4:39 pm

      All around the world there has been a flurry of protest in the last couple of years as a new generation of activists challenge the transnational corporations and the governments that represent them. Why is there this backlash against globalization, which was supposed to generate peace and prosperity? Why is this happening in Canada, designated by the United Nations as the most desirable country in the world in which to live?

      Please say no to government CORUPTION!


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