Relevance of Transparency in Contemporary Society. Reflections about the Case of Mexico

Abstract

The paper analyzes the importance of transparency in democratic societies, not only as a public policy objective, but as a way that allows the power does not adhere so insurmountable to the values of opacity and secrecy, which are contrary to the openness and publicity, to be understood in the logic of responsibility concerning the management of collective affairs, taking into account that in public spaces, there are citizens with interest in knowing and evaluating what constitutive authorities do, and that with the assistance of the institutional system, they manage demands which have a relation with the imperative that the power has to be visible to citizens; it also explains, in the specific situation of Mexico, how there is a transit from the hermetic culture to the need for transparency to be institutionalized and strengthened as a public policy, even though the restrictions it faces in various power structures which tend to characterize the relation State-citizens as an doubtful relation; finally, statistical elements are incorporated in order to position the impact of transparency in the field of civic life.