Daniel Schuman for The Bulwark:
OPENSECRETS, THE NONPROFIT RESEARCH ORGANIZATION dedicated to disclosing the role of money in politics, laid off one-third of its staff last month due to financial difficulties. This sparked understandable concern in newsrooms, think tanks, and research institutions that rely on OpenSecrets to transform government information into usable data.
But OpenSecrets is just the latest in a series of open-government groups to decline or die off over the last decade—a trend that bodes ill for the health of our politics.
Let’s count the bodies.
The Sunlight Foundation, launched in 2006 with the mission of increasing government transparency, peaked in 2013 with $9 million in donations and 40+ staff, was pronounced dead in 2020 although the body had been cold for some time. Sunlight combined technologists, policy advocates, journalists, and organizers all under one roof.
OMBWatch, founded in 1983 in part to increase government transparency and accountability, with a focus on the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, died in 2016. In 2010 the organization’s funding peaked at $3 million, with 28 staff, including two people at OpenTheGovernment.org (OTG). The remains of OMBWatch are interred at the Project on Government Oversight, an accountability organization.
Another group almost as old, the Center for Public Integrity, founded in 1989, is apparently on its last legs as well: It’s down to just a handful of staffers, and, after mass layoffs this past May, laid-off employees launched a GoFundMe hoping for some help to tide themselves over…
The ultimate cause of their demise is simple: reprioritization by foundations and high-net-worth individuals away from financially supporting this overarching, public-informing, community-building work. In their place we have seen a boom in partisan-aligned nonprofit organizations that use similar tools and techniques, but as auxiliaries for the parties in their trench warfare over political power.
The result is a tragedy of the public commons. Open government is essential to a flourishing democracy. It helps the public identify waste, fraud, abuse, and malfeasance. But even more importantly, it provides insight into whether policies are working as intended—and allows for course corrections. If you think transparency is a bad idea, try driving a car with the windows painted black….