Governance from the Grassroots: Digital Activism for Government Accountability

The increasing availability of data and software tools to gather, process and utilize information by the organized civil society has prompted the emergence of digital activism increasingly engaging in formal and non-formal mechanisms to hold government institutions to account. Those individuals and groups represent the so-called ‘civic tech’ movement. Rooted in pre-existing open governance and freedom of information movements, they are at the forefront of utilizing the potential of data and of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support citizens in the exercise of their democratic agency and to hold governments to account in most diverse political contexts. One example is the community around the freedom of information request tool Alaveteli, which appropriates and uses their self-built data infrastructure and relevant advocacy tools and mechanisms in currently twenty-five countries to disclose otherwise locked-up government information. They also play a central role in disclosing institutions that pretend to be transparent whilst keeping the most important and sensitive decisions behind closed doors. This so called ‘open-washing’ of government institutions is a common practice in increasingly data-saturated government spaces.