Transparency and Socio-political Environment in Italy

Transparency of public administration may contribute to the quality of citizens’ life and affect trust in government because of its informative value and monitoring function. Notwithstanding the legislative and administrative efforts undertaken at every level of public administration in Italy, apart from Galli et al. (Transparency, quality of institutions and performance in the Italian municipalities. WP11/2017/DE/UECE, ISEG, University of Lisbon, 2017), not much attention has been given to measuring the degree of transparency. Additionally, even though transparency is also considered an important aspect of social capital affecting the so-called “Equitable and Sustainable Well-being” (BES), none of the indicators proposed within the BES approach aims at assessing transparency itself. Our paper proposes an integrated analysis of transparency and BES indicators, specifically the digital, social and political dimensions, and provides evidence that in large Italian municipalities there is a correlation between transparency and the intensity of Internet use, trust in institutions, social participation and, to a lower extent, civic and informal political participation.