Money, Politics and Transparency 開放政治體系宣言

現場筆記

benchmark, timeframe

緣由

Sunlight Foundation將在2015-07-23舉行Money, Politics and Transparency的workshop，著重討論一民主政治應有的開放政治體系規範，例如政治獻金應無限期公開上網公布等，歡迎直接在該段落加註給予意見或翻譯，如不屬任何段落歡迎寫在意見回饋，統整後將回饋給Sunlight Foundation。

Speed Geeking：

• Slide
• lecture notes：

I am from g0v in Taiwan, you might think where is Taiwan? Here in UTC+8 time zone, a small area right? but if we calculate the area by the number of people online, Taiwan become much bigger!

g0v substituting the “o” with “0″ in gov, rethinking the role that the government plays from the bottom up. here is someone describe the g0v(walkingice), g0v is a platform, you could find people with different talent to join your project, these are stickers that let people put on your arms on hackathon, I personally like the Push one, it means you know someone good or interesting at doing something, you push them to do that, it’s a very powerful skill !

That’s talk about project that I did at g0v which related to today’s topic, I’ll say it’s a resume for candidates.

I’m not concerned about society before the first vote I had, my first voting experience was I just vote the one my Mom suggested, after walked out from the booth, I felt really upset, I think the hard-earned democracy was wasted by people like me, I was wondering: if democracy is a good system, is there something missing?

Here is the electoral bulletin in Taiwan, although I would like to see what they did, not what they say they will do.

This is what we finally present to citizen, including the voting record, bills, attendance record, political contributions and personal property of the candidates.

That’s focus on the money, the original political contribution data our government present in pdf, let us use another way to display that, you could find where his money come from and where he spend more easily, for example: it’s easy to find out he spend lots of money on advertising. you could check it out on this link.

But there are some big obstacles, first, government data published with a 6 month delaying. so we can only disclose contributions to a candidate after the election which is kind of too late. Second, we couldn’t get the transaction data online, we need to walk into the building and print it out on paper only. Last, hard to produce easy-understanding and meaningful information from transaction data, for example, corporation usually donate via subsidiary companies, it’s not so meaningful if we can’t group money from same source.

What we’ve done with the transaction data was really tough, after the printing and scanning, we cut out every cell of the table, put it into a captcha service let everyone type what they see, the result was not bad, 300k data cleared by 10k people within one day, but there’s still plenty of data in that building we haven’t got yet.

Public officials need to report their personal property in Taiwan, we also transform it into something like balance sheet for them, so we could tracking the change of their property more easily, for example: this legislator’s land become more and more in four years.

Last, I’ll show you a situation which is ridiculous to me, the personal property data will expire and been destroy, like food. But I can still crawl it in someway, so the data clearly didn’t been destroy like they said, it’s just not provide to citizen I guess.

2015-07-14 Sunlight 的會前最後版本、Agenda & Logistics

2015-06-19 Sunlight 的會前草稿

意見回饋

• 政治獻金收受應於選舉前多久停止，使該帳目有機會於選前統整公開給選民，也使監督機關有機會於選前查核完畢

• Political contribution should stop receiving money before a sufficient time of election day, so the financial information could publish to citizen and the control agencies could finish the investigation before vote.

• 政治獻金收支可分類，方便概覽、統計，例如：營利事業捐贈收入、政黨捐贈收入、宣傳支出、人事支出等

• Political contribution should have category in financial transactions, so we could easily classify and summary, e.g. income form profit organization, income from political parties, expenditures of propaganda, expenditures of human affairs

• 選舉財務資料應該永久公開，不應有任何過期銷毀限制

• Financial should be available permanently and shouldn’t expired or destory.

• 政府應利用候選人個資產生各候選人的唯一識別碼，以免因名字相同產生混淆，也方便建立各候選人的生涯選舉履歷

• Responsible authority should provide the unique identifier, in order to avoid confused of candidates with the same name situation and also easier to produce candidate’s career campaign resume.

前言

• We, the undersigned have a vision for flourishing, accountable, fair and participatory political systems because we believe that systems of this nature are essential to a healthy democracy. Access to sufficient financial resources to carry out political activities is necessary in building robust institutions. However, money’s role in elections and the political process also can reinforce existing unjust power structures and compromise the ability of governments to serve their citizens. Therefore, government bodies, political parties, civil society organizations, citizens and the media have a responsibility to ensure that money’s role in politics strengthens, rather than obstructs, the integrity of elections and policy-making. To this end, we believe that supporting equitable institutions, transparency and oversight of political finance is key in ensuring a stable and flourishing democracy. While recognizing that the uniqueness of local context may justify the adaptation of this declaration, the undersigned community pledges to advance the following principles to foster strong, accountable and open political systems.
• 我們簽署本文者，共有一個對於繁榮、負責、公平和開放參與的政治體系的願景，因我們相信健康的民主政治離不開這樣一套體系。要建立堅實的制度，足够進行政治活動的財力是必要的。但金錢在選舉和政治程序中的角色亦可以强化既存的不公正的權力結構，並損害政府服務其市民的能力。因此，政府機構、政黨、公民社會組織、公民和媒體有責任力保金錢於政治中的角色增進，而非阻礙，選舉與政策制定的正當性。爲此，我們相信支持公正的制度、透明性與政治資金的監督是保證一個稳定而繁榮的民主的關鍵。帶着對本宣言可以根據各地情況調整適應的認識，簽署本文者誓言推動以下原則，以培養强健、負責和開放的政治體系。
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穩健的政治體系

• Strong political systems encourage diverse activities.

• Given that political activities encourage civic participation, foster representation of citizen interest in the political system and help inform voters, they are essential to a fair and participatory political system.
• Political parties and candidates should be authorized and supported in appropriate ways to carry out these activities.

• Strong political systems require funding.

• Given that resources are necessary to enable diverse political activities, political parties and candidates should be permitted to gain access to sufficient funds to carry out campaigns and maintain regular operations, be it through public or private means.
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• Strong political systems recognize and limit threats to democratic processes.

• As a political system’s potential to be fair and participatory depends on the capability for all stakeholders to voice their interests, reasonable limits on how much private individuals or entities may contribute to political parties and candidates should be considered to ensure that political systems remain equally responsive to all citizens.
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• Strong political systems strive to prevent corruption and undue influence.

• Given the potential risks that money in a political system pose, be it quid pro quo corruption, the entrenchment of unjust institutions or undue influence, political parties and candidates should strive to be agents of integrity. These entities should pursue funding and execute operations through practices that align with both their duty to serve the public interest and a national legal framework aimed to address these risks.
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• Strong political systems should strive to foster equal representation, trust, andequality.

• All citizens have a right to participate in the political process, therefore, lack of access to resources, be it education, social status or financial assets, should not inhibit this opportunity. Political parties and candidates have a duty to uphold inclusive policies and foster practices that encourage equal opportunity in the political process.
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• Strong political systems recognize the role of the law and state in building accountable and representative politics.

• As political systems and the state are mutually dependent, the state should strive to foster strength in political systems. Any state resources dedicated to political parties and candidates should be allocated in a fair, equitable and transparent fashion, such that they foster competition in political systems rather than hinder it.
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• Strong political systems protect independent civil society and free press.

• As external mechanisms can be instrumental in limiting threats to the political process, civil society and the media should be able to operate freely and without restrictions. Where appropriate, legislation or rules should be enacted to uphold and protect these freedoms.
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• Strong political systems recognize and protect openness.

• Transparency is an essential tool in checking the potential risks in a political system. Specifically, openness of political activities, including political finance, can educate voters, strengthen enforcement of the law, deter corruption and provide evidence for necessary reforms. Political systems have a duty to uphold the tenets of openness and transparency.
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開放的政治體系

• Open political systems recognize the right to information on political activities.

• As a prerequisite to adequately participating in and monitoring the political process, access information on
• political activities, such as campaigning, platform development and finances, should be clearly acknowledged
• as a right of all citizens.
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• Open political systems adopt policies that advance openness of political activities.

• The public’s right to information on political activities should be codified through both traditional right to information laws and mandating proactive disclosure. These policies should support public access to
• information on the income and expenditures of political parties, candidates and third-party actors that carry out political activities.
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• Open political systems publish information on political activities.

• Information on the political activities of candidates, political parties, and third-party actors, including financial transactions, should be made available to the public.
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• Open political systems utilize appropriate communication channels.

• Access to information on political activities, including financial transactions, should not be limited by geographic location or internet access. Where internet publication is not sufficient to ensure widespread access, alternative methods should be employed.
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• Open political systems publish political finance information in a timely fashion.

• Information on political activities should be made available to the public in a timely manner, with the goal of releasing information in as close to real-time as possible.
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• Open political systems publish accurate and complete political finance information.

• Sufficient record-keeping and oversight processes should be put in place to ensure that all political finance information reported and published is as accurate and complete as possible.
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• Open political systems ensure accessibility of information on political activities.

• Information on political activities should be made available without registration or licensing restrictions and free of charge, with the exception of direct costs.
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• Open political systems publish data in relevant languages.

• Information on political activities should be made available in all national or working languages.
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• Open political systems publish political information online.

• Information on political activities, including financial information, should be published in an electronic format and maintained in a central and permanent place online.
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• Open political systems provide information in open and structured formats.

• Information on the financial activities of political parties and elections should be compiled and released in an open and structured format, such as structured XML, JSON or CSV, that can be read and processed by computers.
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• Open political systems standardize political finance information.

• Information on political activities should be released in a standardized format that enables meaningful analysis. International standards on reporting and publication should be adopted as they come to exist.
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• Open political systems ensure usability and comprehension.

• To ensure optimal understanding of the activities of political parties, elections and third-party actors, clear instructions should be provided for the use of any online databases or tools. Relevant metadata should be provided in the publication of raw datasets.
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• Open political systems allow downloadability for reuse.

• Information on the financial activities of political parties and elections should be easily downloadable, in bulk and in well-documented formats to allow for easy reuse of the information.
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• Open political systems recognize the role of strong oversight and enforcement.

• As the effectiveness of disclosure in successfully limiting risks in the political system is dependent on its trustworthiness, mechanisms for oversight and enforcement are necessary. These mechanisms ensure that information reported and released is accurate and hold potential threats to the strength of political systems to account.
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可靠的政治體系

• Accountable political systems protect openness through legislation.

• To ensure these principles hold sufficient weight, legislation should be enacted that supports the oversight of political activities. Sanctions should be codified and appropriate processes should be established to ensure compliance with the tenets of a strong political system.
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• Accountable political systems codify violations and establish sanctions.

• Appropriate sanctions should be enacted to deter actors from exercising unethical fundraising practices, circumventing reporting requirements or otherwise threatening the accountability and equity of the political system.
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• Accountable political systems establish independent control agencies.

• To ensure compliance with disclosure requirements and to enable meaningful oversight, a politically independent enforcement agency should be tasked with the role of oversight of the political system.
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• Accountable political systems enable effective monitoring by independent control agency.

• Control agencies should be equipped with the necessary legal powers to perform oversight functions, such as investigations, audits and enforcing sanctions.
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• Accountable political systems provide adequate resources to control agency.

• Control agencies should be equipped with adequate financial resources, staff and training to perform their duties effectively, including the publishing of information on political activities.
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• Accountable political systems promote openness of control agency activities and investigations.

• As institutions designed to serve and strengthen the political system, control agencies should demonstrate a commitment to openness. They should proactively disclose information online about their responsibilities, legal powers, audits, investigations and sanctions in a complete, timely and accurate fashion.