Democracy on Transparency and the Rule of Law

"Transparency has been associated with legality and it is a privileged means to fight corruption and a basic premise to achieve accountability. It is an organizational input that helps to improve internal decisions and processes of the public administration, as well as an effective mechanism to promote competitiveness and to enhance democracy and the rule of law.  

The basic notion of the rule of law is that State must comply with a set of norms that must have been properly enacted by a competent authority. However, this is merely a formal conception which does not take into consideration the specific contents of the juridical framework.  

Joseph Raz, a well-known professor of Philosophy of Law in Oxford University, argues that the rule of law goes beyond the idea that the government must be submitted to the legal order. It is a political ideal, a public virtue, and to achieve it the juridical system must fulfil several principles regarding both the specific contents of the law and the judicial mechanisms that allow enforcing it. (Mex., 2002)  

 A substantive concept of the rule of law must translate the ethical values (freedom, equality, justice) and the political ones (participation in public decisions) into a specific legal framework which is the basis of democratic legitimacy. The rule of law must attain a perfect balance between law and justice. As Elías Díaz, a Spanish constitutionalist says, the rule of law is the juridical institutionalization of democracy. (Mex., 2002)   

Transparency is a quality of government performance based on the rule of law, and it means that government information (files, documents, reports stored both in paper and electronically) belong to the people and not to the public officers who elaborate and store it. Actually, public officers have to make sure that official documents are well kept in orderly files so as to have them ready to be released whenever anyone requires them.   

 Transparency allows for public scrutiny over government activity, enhancing a better organized and more efficient public office, as documents at hand help to learn from past decisions that proved to be successful or to avoid repeating previous mistakes.    Transparency fosters State accountability and responsiveness and is the first step to prevent corruption which has proved to be the greatest obstacle to attain the rule of law.  

Transparency refers to the relation between the State and society as it is the means through which authorities inform their constituencies about the decisions they make, the actions that they implement, the resources that they allocate, and about the outcomes of those decisions. Transparency helps to build well-equipped citizens, with better skills to participate in public matters and to exercise their different political, civil and social rights.The aim of transparency regarding society/State relations is to help restructure the public sphere which, according to Jurgen Habermas is the “territory of interactions where deliberation can be articulated positively to give way to public opinion …” The public sphere is not a mere synonym of the State, but one in which citizens become active subjects, fully empowered with rights, liberties and responsibilities, as well.  

Transparency is an instrument that helps to pave the way to restructure the public sphere as a space of a good quality intercommunication and an open and extensive discussion which is a basic ingredient of the rule of law.Ms Jacqueline PESCHARD, Transparency as an instrument of development and the rule of law Fourth Intercultural Workshop - Democracy on Transparency and the Rule of Law 09/10/2014 - http://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/events/?id=1886