Tying the successor’s hands or following the neighbor? Diffusion of access to information in Brazilian municipalities

Abstract Why do political actors promote public transparency? Studies show that adherence to transparency can be both politically strategic, i.e., to tie the hands of the successor, and a result of observing the adoption of the policy made by other municipalities, i.e., to minimize the cost of information. We test both the political and the informational motivations to explain the adoption of transparency laws with a subnational analysis of the diffusion of LAI in Brazilian municipalities (2011-2019). Results show that both the informational and the political strategy motivations affect the probability of adopting the LAI. Socioeconomic factors are also important explanatory factors. However, an analysis of heterogeneous effects shows that the learning mechanism is relevant for reducing the impact of socioeconomic factors. This means that learning from neighboring municipalities minimizes the cost of information and the reliance on structural factors to promote transparency at the local level.

摘要 为何政治行为者会推动公共透明度建设？既有研究显示，遵循透明度原则兼具双重动因：一是出于政治策略考量，即束缚继任者的行动空间；二是效仿其他市政当局的政策采纳行为，以此降低信息获取成本。本研究针对2011至2019年巴西各市政当局的地方信息获取法（Local Access to Information Law，简称LAI）的扩散进程开展次国家级分析，以此检验解释透明度法律采纳行为的政治动机与信息动机。研究结果表明，信息动机与政治策略动机均会对LAI的采纳概率产生显著影响。社会经济因素同样是重要的解释变量。不过，异质性效应分析显示，学习机制能够弱化社会经济因素的影响：即通过向邻接市政当局学习，可降低信息获取成本，减少地方层面推动透明度建设时对结构性因素的依赖。