Local government transparency in East Central Europe

Decentralisation and democratisation have proceeded simultaneously in the post-communist space of East Central Europe. Decentralisation to elected local governments was encouraged to facilitate democratisation, combat corruption and provide better public services and goods. To evaluate the success of such efforts, I examine recently archived (2001, 2002) surveys of local government chief administrative officers from Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia and Latvia. My analysis suggests variation in local government transparency to be a function of the density of political and civil society, and the institutions that mediate between them, as opposed to socioeconomic development or locality size.