Contrasting the Perception of Open Government among Public Officials: A Factor Analysis of Mexico and Spain

Open Government (OG) is an increasingly used term in public administrations. Public sector managers seem to be interested in modernizing their public management models and find OG strategies a means to respond to increasing citizen demands for transparency, participation, and collaboration in public affairs. Specifically, the broad scope of this term seems to have produced an assortment of what public managers understand as OG. This research is a comparative analysis of the perception that exists in the local governments of two countries: Mexico and Spain. Our research questions are: (1) How do OG managers understand this concept? (2) What is the perception of those who manage OG regarding the level of development in their organization? And (3) What are the realities of OG implementation in local public administrations? This article reports the results of a survey to city councils in Mexico and Spain, in order to compare the perception of OG. The survey’s descriptive results are complemented with an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), allowing us to define public managers’ perspectives in both countries and compare them. Results indicate that there are some points of agreement between both countries, such as the relevance of transparency and citizen participation as pillars of OG. However, there are also discrepancies, not only in the progress of implementation, but also regarding the general perceptions about what OG is, and its scope.