'Transparency' is a term which many speculate. According to scholars, Transparency has three inter-related aims: first, to inform citizens in a simple and understandable way on the government’s decisions: second, to foster civil society participation and engagement; and, third, to monitor and to prevent corruption. Notwithstanding these shared thoughts on Transparency, much has to be done in western democracies. News on corruption and bribery in distant developing countries are frequently reported by media. Still, the European Commission estimates that corruption costs the EU economy roughly 120 billion EUR per year (^2 ). The lack of transparency is both an economic and political problem, since corruption and opacous policies may develop degenerative forms of governance. Which, in turn, lessens citizens’ political participation ( ) and understanding on how the governmental machine function. This “participative deficit” is common in many Western democracies. The notion of popular empowerment at the core of “democracy” has been diluted to the point that most citizens exercise their putative sovereignty only through periodic elections of representatives and thus have extremely limited input into political processes. This deficit is further exacerbated by the fact that elected representatives in fact embody a range of competing 'interests' - party, ideological, corporate - which may or may not be coincident with those of the voter. Opportunities for participation of citizens are progressively reduced in favor of other agents: bureaucracies, technocrats, inter-governmental bodies, lobby groups, commercial enterprises and the media. As Colin Crouch argues: Even if elections take place and continue to influence governments, the electoral debate is a tightly controlled show, rival groups led by experienced professionals in the techniques of persuasion practice on a limited number of questions selected from these groups. The mass of citizens plays a passive, acquiescent, even apathetic role, merely reacting to the signals it receives. Apart from the spectacle of the election campaign, policy is decided in private by the integration between elected governments and elites that are almost exclusively economic interests. [Crouch, 2004] To revive democracy, it may be useful to rediscover a participatory political system that: first, it is not limited to the time of the vote; second, which could control economic power; and, third, that could reinvigorate the interest and responsibility of individuals. Indeed, to foster political participation a better transparency between citizens, government and other political stakeholders - where everyone can have the opportunity to have their say, to take action, to participate in decision-making processes and control the choices of their representatives - is essential
