“The most socially enriching use of communicational information technology undoubtedly consists in providing human groups with the means to pool their mental forces to form intelligent collectives and give life to a democracy in real time.” (Pierre Levy).
In the state form prior to democracy, secrecy was the rule and the sovereign did not have to answer to parliaments, judges or subjects. With the institution of democracies, secrecy was attenuated by notions such as transparency.
Reflections on transparency in democratic regimes are south africa mobile database not recent. The English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was one of the pioneers in defending the application of this principle to government acts, especially in the legislative sphere. According to him, concepts such as this are essential to ensure public trust.
Although the concept of transparency is old, it was only after the second half of the 20th century that it began to be discussed in order to create mechanisms capable of deepening democracy. Among the reasons for this change, we can mention the following political changes and changes in social relations: the achievement of individual rights and freedoms; the change in advertising through mass communication; the change in contact between political leaders and their bases; and the financing of transnational projects that use transparency to ensure trust and attract investors.
The development of social relations, especially digital social networks (DSNs), has made political meetings increasingly open and accelerated the flow of information. Political actors have to make decisions in increasingly shorter time frames and their effects are perceived by an ever-increasing number of people.
These factors force the State to promote innovations in its institutions in order to make them more interactive and efficient. Furthermore, it is necessary to ensure that the changes allow citizens to make their own assessments with full knowledge of the facts and without the need for expert intervention.
It is no longer possible to govern people in the same way because, compared to 1900, the way people in the 21st century behave is different. For this reason, an increasing number of countries are using new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to implement mechanisms dedicated to strengthening transparency and making the State more responsive to public opinion .