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？既有研究表明，恪守透明度原则兼具政治策略性——即束缚继任者的手脚——同时也是效仿其他市政单位采纳相关政策的结果，即降低信息获取成本。本文基于2011-2019年巴西各市政层面的地方信息获取法案（Local Access to Information，LAI）扩散情况的次国家级分析，对推动透明度法案采纳的政治动机与信息动机进行了检验。
研究结果显示，信息层面与政治策略层面的动机均会对地方政府采纳LAI的概率产生显著影响。社会经济因素同样是重要的解释变量。不过，异质性效应分析表明，学习机制能够有效削弱社会经济因素的影响。这意味着，向邻近市政单位学习能够降低信息获取成本，同时减少地方层面推动透明度建设对结构性因素的依赖。