Pernille Boye Koch

Special Report: Transparency on a Bumpy Road—Denmark

The Nordic countries are often inherently associated with openness and transparency as far as public administration is concerned. Openness is part of the stereotype Nordic “brand”. The brand is not surprisingly promoted by Danes with a tendency to take credit for being a pioneer within the field of open administration although history does not fully confirm that claim. Actually, the world’s first Freedom of Information Act is the Swedish one. Even when confronted with historical facts, however, Danes continue to claim that Denmark is a frontrunner in the battle against closed doors within the administrative house. In this respect, Danes suffer from not only from an occasional Freudian slip but from recurrent Freudian slips.