Developing a Government Openness Index: The case of developing countries

This study aims to develop a comprehensive Government Openness Index (GOI) in developing countries, explore the relationship of the variables in the GOI, and examine the relationship of the GOI and income levels. Based on a linear scaling method, panel data from 101 countries was used to develop a GOI using four variables (e.g. accountability (ACC), information and communication technology (ICT), citizen participation and freedom (CPF), and transparency (TRA)). The results show that ICT performs highest in global means, coefficients of variation, and the contribution rate and contribution level to the change of GOI but CPT performs lowest in the contribution rate. The relationship between GOI and income is significantly positive. The results of this study suggest that developing countries should improve their capacity to utilize and sustain ICT and in particular human capacity for directing ICT toward improving citizen participation and freedom