Why Policy Should Be Made in the Open

When policy gets made behind closed doors, suspicion fills the vacuum. And right now, that vacuum is enormous. According to Pew Research Center, the current level of public trust in the federal government "is one of the lowest in the nearly seven decades since the question was first asked." A Partnership for Public Service survey found that only 33% of Americans trust the federal government, while 47% actively distrust it. And perhaps the most telling number: just 15% of Americans believe the government is transparent.

Those aren't just polling curiosities. They represent a broken relationship between the people and the institutions that govern them. The good news? There's a clear path to repair: open the process up.

The Trust Crisis Is Real — and Bipartisan

The erosion of public trust isn't new, but it has deepened. According to Pew Research Center, trust in the federal government has been in steady decline since the 1970s, with only brief spikes — most notably after 9/11 — before sliding back down. As of September 2025, the numbers are stark: Democrats' trust has never been lower, with just 9% saying they trust the federal government "just about always or most of the time," while only 26% of Republicans say the same.

What's notable is how much partisanship shapes the picture. Trust tends to rise among whichever party controls the White House and fall among the opposition. But even with those swings, the overall trend line keeps sinking. More than 80% of Americans believe elected officials don't care what people like them think, according to Pew. Two-thirds of Americans say the government is corrupt.

This isn't a left-right problem. It's a structural one. And one of its root causes is opacity — the sense that decisions are made in rooms ordinary people can't enter.

Transparency Isn't Just Nice — It Builds Trust

Research backs up what intuition suggests: when governments disclose more, trust goes up. A 2024 study published in Government Information Quarterly found that "the act of disclosure generally enhances trust perceptions" — and that "public trust is higher when organizations disclose more information than legally required." In other words, the bare minimum isn't enough. People respond to governments that go above and beyond in opening their books.

The OECD has reached similar conclusions on a global scale, finding that "open government is a key driver of citizens' confidence in their government." Yet the OECD also notes a sobering reality: only 30% of people across member countries feel they can have a voice in what the government does.

That gap — between what transparency could do and what citizens actually experience — is exactly the space that open policymaking needs to fill.

Open Policymaking in Practice

This isn't just theory. Governments around the world have experimented with opening the legislative process to public participation, and the results are instructive.

Finland has been a pioneer. The Finnish government crowdsourced reform of its off-road traffic law, inviting citizens to share ideas and knowledge on an open platform. About 6,000 Finns participated in a related survey, and researchers found that the online exchanges qualified as genuine democratic deliberation. The process demonstrated that "crowdsourcing increases transparency in policymaking, when the policymaking process becomes more accessible to regular citizens," as researchers at Stanford documented.
Iceland attempted to crowdsource an entirely new constitution after its 2008 financial crisis, using a multi-layered structure where an elected council synthesized public suggestions. While the final product faced political obstacles, the process itself showed that citizens are willing and able to engage meaningfully with complex policy questions.
Brazil's Congress developed the "e-Democracia" portal — an online platform providing space for citizens to discuss legislative topics and comment on specific proposals as they're being drafted.

These examples share a common thread: when you invite people in, they show up. And their contributions have real value. As scholars Aitamurto and Chen have argued, crowdsourced policymaking creates "democratic value" by increasing transparency and inclusiveness, "epistemic value" through knowledge sharing, and "economic value" by producing policies that better address citizens' actual needs.

What Open Policy Looks Like on DirectGov

At DirectGov, we believe this principle should be baked into the platform from the start. Every policy idea begins as a public proposal — visible, debatable, and open to contribution from day one. There are no backroom drafts. No surprise bills. The entire lifecycle of a policy idea — from rough concept to refined proposal — happens where anyone can watch, question, and improve it.

This isn't about replacing expertise with mob rule. It's about combining the knowledge of engaged citizens with the rigor of good policymaking. As the OECD's guidelines on citizen participation put it, inclusive participation "enriches the policymaking process by incorporating diverse views and harnessing collective knowledge."

The trust deficit didn't appear overnight, and it won't vanish overnight either. But every policy drafted in the open is a small act of repair. Every comment, vote, and amendment made by an ordinary citizen is proof that democracy can work differently — and better.

Ready to help rebuild trust in how policy gets made? Browse open proposals on DirectGov and add your voice to the conversation.

Why Policy Should Be Made in the Open

The Trust Crisis Is Real — and Bipartisan

Transparency Isn't Just Nice — It Builds Trust

Open Policymaking in Practice

What Open Policy Looks Like on DirectGov

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