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the results as early as the following year. And there it is. Who would not want to have a fast track to real power—and not have to question one’s own decisions when one thinks that one is doing good for others? On the other hand, in order to enable well-informed discussion about alternatives, the decision-makers need knowledge about the matters in hand. Even though there is no requirement for politics to be rational and values are actually an inseparable part of deciding what is best for the people, knowledge rarely decreases the likelihood of making better politics. Again, in the Helsinki city library participatory budgeting workshops, the budget item alternatives were introduced with a price tag with one five-digit sum and no further information. Participants were eager to know more about the basis of the prices and they felt a bit frustrated when there was not enough information available. The opposite happened during the opening part of the workshops, when the organisers presented visualisations of city library finances on Open Spending.org. Participants reacted positively and seemed satisfied that they had an abundance of information at their disposal. In those cases they could not end up in a situation where they lacked the information they needed in order to make well-grounded decisions. Model for Revealing Secrets
For public administration, the most important benefit to be had from using participatory budgeting is achieving such information as is not available anywhere else. So if some officials have already learned to listen to the people and even devolved the decision-making power to the public, should we not now concentrate on the quality of the interaction? Once again, knowledge is key. For too long—practically always—information about public finances has generally been thought to concern only a few people, namely politicians and civil servants, journalists probably as well, but not the public. Is this sentiment healthy in a modern society? I would like to use this opportunity to suggest an idea for a model for changing this situation. The model consists of three components, two of them already being in place. The Freedom of Information Act and Honest Leadership and Open Government Act are federal legislation in the United States. Among other things, they effectively promote openness, and have as one practical outcome that individual states must publish transpar125