Taking part

government transparency

The principle that public business should be visible: open meetings, published records, disclosed money, and data anyone can inspect.

In full

Transparency in American law works mostly by requiring disclosure rather than by limiting conduct: report the contribution, publish the rule, open the meeting, release the record. Its weakness is that disclosure only helps when someone reads it, which is why the format and accessibility of public data matter as much as its existence.

Where to go next

Freedom of Information Act open meetings law campaign finance disclosure open data Where our data comes from

Written from USA.gov, Branches of the U.S. Government

Keep going

Browse every term in the glossary, or see the vocabulary in motion in the How government works walkthroughs.

A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.