Open government

Earlier this week I talked about the problems that governments face when trying to get feedback on what they do, so that they can adapt when things aren't working. Unfortunately, elections are a pretty blunt tool for achieving this feedback. Partly because they are infrequent, but also because of the inherent problems the voting systems have in effectively communicating voter preferences (public choice theorists spend much of their lives studying these issues). One of the many barriers flows from the asymmetry of information about what government is actually doing on our behalf.