Transparency of political work still needs to be improved considerably
Many of the 16 state governments and parliaments have made some progress in the transparency of their political work, but there is still a significant need for improvement. This is the finding of the organization Transparency Germany in a new study. In its ranking, the state of Thuringia is at the top and the state of Bremen at the bottom.
Even relatively well-performing federal states have improved the most with the help of new regulations, said Norman Loeckel of Transparency Germany. In contrast, there is cause for concern about the stagnation of the states at the bottom of the ranking. "Apparently, many decision-makers lack the necessary political will for modern rules for clean politics, despite the crumbling trust in democratic institutions."
Four criteria for an integrity and transparent policy were examined: Does a state have a lobby register and how is it designed? Is the involvement of lobbyists in laws disclosed through a so-called legislative footprint? Are there cooling-off periods for government members and top officials when they switch from politics to the private sector? And what behavioral rules, disclosure requirements, and prohibitions, for example, for secondary activities of members of parliament, are there? Each of these criteria accounted for 25 percent of the overall evaluation.
The lack of progress in transparency in the bottom-ranked states could be attributed to a perceived lack of political will for implementing modern rules for clean politics, as Norman Loeckel suggests. Addressing this issue, particularly in the realm of employment transitions, might require initiatives to foster a stronger thread of integrity in employment, such as implementing mandatory cooling-off periods for government officials moving into the private sector.
