Opacity as an Information Problem: A Framework for Refreshing the Study of Opacity

By making public information available, transparency mandates should help reduce information asymmetries in the account-giving relationship between public servants and citizens. Nevertheless, opacity, among other factors, curtails the value of available information. The mechanics of opacity are still unclear, to some extent, because opacity has been conceived in the literature as the opposite of transparency (i.e., a state of absent or insufficient information). In this chapter, I argue that interpreting opacity as a problem of information expands our understanding of information asymmetries beyond the mere availability of information. Based on this argument, I propose a framework for studying opacity as a problem of information management and explore some implications of opacity for transparency and accountability under this lens.