Unveiled to regulate: the logics and the trajectories of regulatory transparency policies

This thesis traces the creation and trajectories of regulatory transparency policies (RTPs) within what I define as the three ‘logics of regulatory transparency’: control, performance and transaction. Through in-depth case study analyses of the birth and long-term evolution of selected RTPs in Brazil and the United Kingdom, this study shows that the logics can impact the trajectory of an RTP by shaping the power and priorities of actors in particular ways or by disclosing specific types of information. What I refer to as RTPs in this thesis are a specific class of transparency policies that carry an inherent regulatory goal pursued through the disclosure of information and published directly by governments and regulators. These are not a new class of policies; rather they are studied from the perspective of government transparency or from the perspective of governance. The goal of the thesis is to understand the creation and evolution of RTPs, identify eventual patterns of progress, and learn about the stability of these policies and of the multi-actor interactions that take place during or as a result of their creation and progress.