OGP works in countries where the legislative branch is involved - unlike the USA

4 views
Skip to first unread message

Alexander Howard

unread,
Sep 16, 2024, 2:43:45 PM9/16/24
to US Open Government
Hi all

This morning, I read Daniel Schuman’s excellent newsletter, which included a section that collects several notable developments in the U.S. open government space that everyone here should know about today: 

These include: 
-the GSA Open Government Secretariat’s new & improved website — not to be confused with the GSA’s old and degraded open government website at GSA.gov/open
-the GSA’s former Request for Comment on  in the Federal Register, stating that “the United States Federal Government is initiating the co-creation process for its 6th U.S. Open Government National Action Plan.” 
-the membership of the Open Government Federal Advisory Committee, which Daniel now chairs.

He has curated a useful set of links that’s more up to date than the GSA page, here: 

I want to highlight a specific issue which is crucial to understanding one reason why OGP has not had the positive effects in the United States that other nations participating have seen: Neither Congress nor the judicial branch has ever been involved. 

Daniel is framing the Secretariat’s efforts as an “executive branch” plan, which isn’t inaccurate within the scope of the mission that has been defined for them by GSA leadership — and presumably this White House.

Saying OGP is only about the executive branch is also a specific design and governance choice that the Obama White House made that has undermined the impact, influence, and relevance of the Partnership in the United States ever since.
There are other factors that have led to the ongoing failure of OGP in the United States. The Open Government Partnership commissioned research in 2020 that explored that question and called on the U.S. government to “seize the moment” in spring of 2021, which I participated in. 

Unfortunately, few of the policy or process recommendations were adopted: 

Neither Trump nor Biden called on all Americans to participate on air, online, or on the world stage. 

Neither White House effectively engaged the American public, press, or media companies about OGP, nor formed partnerships with tech companies or civic tech NGOs, while resetting the official defaults for public communications to opacity. 

The White House ignored coalition letters and refused to co-create commitments, revise them, or add new ones based on our priorates, instead of standing with the people demanding transparency and accountability from our government: 

The cumulative outcome of leadership, design, and governance choices over the last decade has meant that OGP’s platform or processes have not been a useful platform to reverse low trust and faith in U.S. government, despite the vigorous efforts of civil servants who remained engaged or scrubbed in. 

3 years on, the future of OGP in the USA still depends on White House leadership — but it will be the next one, unless President Biden decides to make open governance a priority in the last months of his term.   

I look forward to reading more responses to the GSA RFI that explore why OGP hasn’t worked in the USA that the federal government and philanthropic community can apply to making this work meaningful — or that NGOs, the press, and the public can consult to decide if refusing to legitimize a Potemkin process in 2025 would be more effective. 

 

—
Sent from my pocket supercomputer
410-849-9808 | @digiphile
Subscribe to Civic Texts: https://civic-texts.ghost.io
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages