170/5000 The value of public information in democracy: theoretical contributions to define a data reuse policy that drives the welfare economy in Honduras

Abstract

Currently, one of the priorities in the agendas of governments and one of the elements that arouses greater media interest, is public transparency. Understood as the structuring principle of any Social and Democratic Rule of Law, public transparency brings institutions closer to citizens and allows them to be informed of what they do, how they do it and what public organizations perform their functions for. Transparency is materialized in the effective right to public information that any citizen has, although it can be active when the institutions offer data to society without prior request, or passive when citizens ask for them in advance. Without information, without this strategic resource that flows constantly in all areas of life, it is not possible to carry out any personal or professional activity, being therefore necessary that the citizen can obtain public data, exchange them and access the sources that guard them. The present investigation shows how the public data reuse policy produces a substantial economic change in the Knowledge Society, and how such a change is only possible if a deep political-administrative reform and modernization has been previously carried out, preparing the institutions to carry out effective treatment, exchange and provision of public information. In this way, the intelligent management of public data will require the coordinated action of the State, the Society and the Market, following a basic public management model in Political Science and Administration, called Democratic Governance. Honduras has a great challenge on the horizon, because although it is true that a transparency law has been approved in the country, the data reuse policy has not yet been addressed, when it is a basic piece in welfare economics.