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Government open data and transparency: Oakeshott, civil association and the general will

Government open data and transparency: Oakeshott, civil association and the general will
Government open data and transparency: Oakeshott, civil association and the general will
This article considers recent trends in government towards openness and transparency, particularly with respect to the publication of open data, in the context of Michael Oakeshott’s ideas of the nature of the state and the conditions for civility. It is argued that certain aspects of open data have pushed back against a trend towards the imposition of government goals upon its citizens, an imposition often justified in terms reminiscent of Rousseau’s doctrine of the general will. Oakeshott’s view of the state is contrasted with Rousseau’s, and the two frameworks used to locate recent innovations in digital government. Of these, only open data is supportive of civil
association.
transparency, open data, oakeshott, rousseau, societas, universitas, general will, nudge, e-government, transformational government
1-18
O'Hara, Kieron
0a64a4b1-efb5-45d1-a4c2-77783f18f0c4
O'Hara, Kieron
0a64a4b1-efb5-45d1-a4c2-77783f18f0c4

O'Hara, Kieron (2014) Government open data and transparency: Oakeshott, civil association and the general will. Global Discourse, 4, 1-18. (doi:10.1080/23269995.2014.903720).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This article considers recent trends in government towards openness and transparency, particularly with respect to the publication of open data, in the context of Michael Oakeshott’s ideas of the nature of the state and the conditions for civility. It is argued that certain aspects of open data have pushed back against a trend towards the imposition of government goals upon its citizens, an imposition often justified in terms reminiscent of Rousseau’s doctrine of the general will. Oakeshott’s view of the state is contrasted with Rousseau’s, and the two frameworks used to locate recent innovations in digital government. Of these, only open data is supportive of civil
association.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 10 April 2014
Keywords: transparency, open data, oakeshott, rousseau, societas, universitas, general will, nudge, e-government, transformational government
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 364926
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/364926
PURE UUID: f4b39072-3f00-4ac4-b89b-37a39c6e194b
ORCID for Kieron O'Hara: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9051-4456

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 May 2014 08:32
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:09

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