Transparency and accountability in local governments of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) / Transparencia y rendición de cuentas de los municipios de Castilla-La Mancha (España)

Abstract

The research project GlobalCOM (CSO2013-46997-R) addresses the level of transparency in public local digital communication. To this effect, it evaluates 41 indicators related with the system of accountability on the websites of each council. The hypothesis claims that the websites of Spanish local governments show major deficiencies associated with the lack of transparency about the local administration processes. This have a negative impact on the role that these institutions play as information sources for the media and the citizens, hampering public debate and generating mistrust against local politics. This paper presents the results of the first set of results obtained from 33 municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants within Castilla-La Mancha, during the first quarter of 2015. The results confirm the hypothesis for the selected sample.

Keywords

• Infoparticip@
• transparency
• journalism
• innovation
• local administration.