Here’s an interesting story coming out of Latin America. Municipal governments are making themselves more transparent and more accessible to citizens thanks to social media.
In Luis Moreno’s article in The Atlantic, he describes the landscape in Mexico City, where the city’s mayor has made a considerable effort to respond to complaints by his constituents on Twitter. In fact, social media is being utilized in similar fashion all over Latin America’s burdgeoning cities with the most economic growth.
For politicians, there is an inherent risk in being able to hear citizens’ complaints but being unable or unwilling to act, but there is also a reward to reap for fixing a reported problem. For those citizens, they experience a new way to participate in government and help their community.