The Brazilian Federal Executive transparency: a comparison between the governments of Dilma and Bolsonaro

Abstract

The objective of this article is to compare the online transparency of the public accounts of the governments of Dilma Rousseff and Jair Bolsonaro, respectively. Considering that the adoption of different agendas and policies from those governments can reflect on their transparency, our hypothesis is that the level of online transparency of Dilma Rousseff’s government is higher than Jair Bolsonaro’s. In 2016 and 2020, we implemented a methodology geared for qualitative, quantitative, and comparative analysis of the online transparency of public accounts. This study reveals that under Rousseff’s government the level of transparency was considered advanced (97%), while under Bolsonaro, transparency reached the moderate level (73%). The results are discussed considering the Brazilian context and legislation.

online transparency; democracy; Dilma Rousseff; Jair Bolsonaro; Brazilian Federal Executive branch