What Drives Online Transparency Practices at the Local Level? Evidence from 2222 Municipalities in Switzerland

Abstract

Regarded as a core principle of good governance, transparent government communication has been discussed at the national level in particular. This article aims to extend this reflection by assessing the transparency practices of all Swiss municipalities in 2018, using an index of the volume of information published online (LTI). The results show that the practices of municipalities are very heterogeneous and that the population size and financial capacity of municipalities have a significant impact on the amount of information disseminated on their official websites.