John Harris and Dr. Darren Hawkins. Political Science

Introduction

Peru is known for its cynical citizenry. People from all demographics and regions have a negative and oftentimes hopeless perception of their government of all level (regional, municipal and national). This ardent cynicism comes for a legacy of corruption that is deeply embedded into the political culture. Most Peruvians do not trust their government but feel there is no feasible solution to the mountain of problems facing reform (Carrión and Zárete 2006, 1-194).

In this light, the nation of Peru has launched a campaign to restore the confidence of the people as well as reduce corruption within the government ranks. The government has chosen to use the internet to promulgate data pertaining to all civic endeavors; everything from private construction contracts to travel expenses for government officials is published and available for public scrutiny. This monumental effort has opened the public up to the gamut of government operations around the country. Furthermore, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from the Netherlands and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have assisted this transparency effort by crafting interactive internet sites that allow users to view government activity in a comparative context, viewing one region against another. There is no doubt that this is a landmark effort for ending corruption in Peru.

But is this effort working? Is an internet campaign of this scale enough to uproot the deeply entrenched distrust that ordinary Peruvians have for their government? Seemingly, the large-scale transparency effort would give citizens a fresher and more positive look at their government. On the other hand, citizens may be too disillusioned to trust this campaign or anything the government says. My project sought to measure the effect of this historic transparency campaign on the local Peruvian population and thus contribute to the understanding of how transparency supports democracy.

Methodology

To analyze the effect of transparency information on typical Peruvians, I used a treatment group and a control group. Both groups were sampled using a generally accepted field experiment random sampling method which entailed soliciting citizens in public areas around the city of Lima. Each sample consisted of two hundred (200) participants. I hired local citizens from Lima to act as enumerators so as to diminish any bias that a foreigner administering the experiment might cause.

The control group was asked to complete a survey that measured general political attitudes and sentiments towards municipal government. The survey sought to capture general opinions and perceptions about governance in Lima and not about specific issues. An example of a survey question is “do you trust your government?” or “on a scale from one to ten how corrupt do you feel your government is?” This survey created a baseline to which I compared the treatment group. The treatment group was exposed to a fifteen minutes typical user experience on the Peruvian online transparency portal. This was done via a prerecorded screenshot video that was presented on a tablet computer. The video I showed to my treatment group contained an assortment of different information including budget records, government employee information, and investment projects data. After exposing the treatment group subjects to the transparency portal video, the enumerator administered the same survey that the control group completed. All results were saved on the tablets.

Results

35 questions were asked in the survey. Throughout those questions, we gathered enough data to determine significant relationship between information exposure and sentiments about the government. We found that subjects that were exposed to the video about transparency were significantly more likely to respond positively regarding their feelings of their governmental intuitions. This relationship confirmed out hypothesis.

Discussion

The results indicate that exposure to information about governmental processes provokes citizens to be more positive about their government. With the extensive effort of the Peruvian government to bolster public support via transparency campaigns, this conclusion has important policy implication. While the citizenry of Peru is generally cynical towards its government, this project shows that concentrated information exposure can have an immediate effect on people’s ideas and feelings towards the government. Indeed, the perception of corrupt and unchangeable leaders is not set in stone but rather subject to change.

Policy makers should take these results to mean that the effort and resources dedicated to the transparency campaign are not wasted but instead an important part to reviving a robust civil society. Since democracy hinges public support and participation, a strong civil society means a better democracy and likely a decrease in corruption. Furthermore, as more information is made accessible to the people, public servants will be more accountable for their actions. This will lead to a natural decrease in power abuse.

Conclusion

Peru is making great strides towards a strong democratic society. The implementation of transparency campaigns is a major step in a positive direction. My project validates the purpose of the campaigns and shows that exposure to transparency information has the desired effect upon the public. Hopefully, as this relationship is further explored and understood, such campaigns will be common among democratically poor nations such as Peru. The change that information can bring is important and relevant in these cases. This project shows just how important