Democracy, Freedom, and Budget Transparency: A Multinational Analysis

The article examines the importance of democracy and freedom to budget transparency that contributes to government responsiveness and accountability to citizens. It investigates the question: What are the effects of democracy and freedom on budget transparency? Using the 2019 data from the International Budget Partnership that scored countries' budget transparency practices and ordinary least squares multivariate regression, findings show that countries that score high on democracy and freedom tend to report higher budget transparency scores. The study attests to and validates the importance of democracy and freedom and the recognition that these principles should be incorporated as core values in government administration.