In 2013, La Promesa del Gobierno Abierto (The Open Government Promise) was published, coordinated by Andrés Hofmann, Álvaro Ramírez Alujas, and José Antonio Bojórquez. The title referred to the resurgence (with strength) of the concept of open government, this time promoted by the of Barack Obama —then President of the United States of America— through his famous Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government of 21 January 2009 and the subsequent Open Government Directive of 8 December of the same year. The concept gained considerable traction at a time when the 2008 financial crisis had just erupted, and one of its causes had been identified as the obsolescence of the still prevailing Public Administration model, which was strictly hierarchical, closed, and inflexible. Open Government proposed a radical shift based on three main pillars: transparency, citizen participation, and collaboration between administrations.
Ten years later (twelve by the time the book has been published), a sort of assessment of the promises made by open government emerged has just seen the light, ¿Se cumplió la promesa del Gobierno Abierto?: Balance de una década, aprendizajes y desafíos de futuro en Iberoamérica (Was the Open Government Promise Fulfilled?: A Decade’s Balance, Learnings, and Future Challenges in Ibero-America), this time edited by César Cruz-Rubio and Álvaro Ramírez Alujas.
Solving Wicked Problems Through Open Government Approaches
In the winter of 2020–2021, while I was serving as Director General of Citizen Participation and Electoral Processes at the Catalan Government, our directorate general, and particularly the Sub-directorate General for Electoral Processes, was tasked with coordinating the operational organisation of the 2021 elections to the Parliament of Catalonia, held on February 1th, at the peak of the third and most contagious wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The existing protocol, efficient and effective and improved over decades, proved insufficient in the face of a new, highly complex and deeply uncertain environment.
The way to tackle the challenge was by applying the Open Government paradigm to everything that was not strictly the hard core of the electoral procedure, in order to protect it from the environment, and by using the tools of the paradigm to guarantee the right to vote, minimise risks to public and individual health, and above all, preserve the legitimacy of the entire process. Thus, transparency, participation, and collaboration also became fundamental pillars of the electoral process, which is usually governed strictly by the Spanish Organic Law on the General Electoral System, not known for its flexibility or leniency.
This story is told in the chapter Resolución de problemas retorcidos mediante aproximaciones de Gobierno Abierto. El caso de las Elecciones al Parlament de Catalunya durante la pandemia de COVID19 (Solving Wicked Problems Through Open Government Approaches: The Case of the Elections to the Parliament of Catalonia During the COVID-19 Pandemic) included in the new volume, and in response to the question, it delivers a resounding yes: in our case, the promise of open government was indeed fulfilled. In fact, while we cannot be absolutely certain, we have no doubt that the success of the electoral process organisation was due to this methodological choice.
Both the book and the chapter can be freely downloaded.
Abstract:
Wicked problems are among the greatest challenges in public policy because, by definition, there is no generic heuristic to address them.
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and until vaccination campaigns were widely implemented, holding elections worldwide posed a challenge in terms of public health, fundamental rights, and the legality and legitimacy of the processes.
We study the case of the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia, held at the peak of the third and most contagious wave of the pandemic in Spain, at a time when the vaccination campaign was still in its infancy.
We analyse how the systematic application of an Open Government paradigm enabled a successful approach to the wicked problem. We also show how it was applied structurally and systematically, embedded in the daily tasks of the Administration, marking a radical cultural change in one of the most protocolised and inflexible areas as the electoral system.
Downloads:
Peña-López, I. (2025). “Solving Wicked Problems Through Open Government Approaches: The Case of the Elections to the Parliament of Catalonia During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. In Cruz-Rubio, C.N. & Ramírez Alujas, Á.V. (Eds.), ¿Se cumplió la promesa del Gobierno Abierto?: Balance de una década, aprendizajes y desafíos de futuro en Iberoamérica, 225-255. Madrid: INAP.
Peña-López, I. (2025). “Resolución de problemas retorcidos mediante aproximaciones de Gobierno Abierto. El caso de las Elecciones al Parlament de Catalunya durante la pandemia de COVID19”. En Cruz-Rubio, C.N. & Ramírez Alujas, Á.V. (Eds.), ¿Se cumplió la promesa del Gobierno Abierto?: Balance de una década, aprendizajes y desafíos de futuro en Iberoamérica, 225-255. Madrid: INAP.
Cruz-Rubio, C.N. & Ramírez Alujas, Á.V. (Eds.), ¿Se cumplió la promesa del Gobierno Abierto?: Balance de una década, aprendizajes y desafíos de futuro en Iberoamérica. Madrid: INAP.
PS: This chapter is dedicated, in gratitude, to the team of the Sub-directorate General for Electoral Processes and the Electoral Office, as well as to the tens of thousands of people involved in the preparation of the elections, especially Núria Arbussà, Óscar Cristóbal, Aman Blasco, Jordi Miró, Rosa M. Vilar, Glòria Moreno, Mari Carmen Ruiz, Míriam Carrera, Maria Javierre, Carla Santos, Lluís Anaya, Oscar Soriano, Xavier Llebaria, David Mestres, Carmen Cabezas, Sergio Delgado, Josep Maria Reniu, and Simón Pérez. Not all of them may be listed here, but all those who are listed were there and represent the many, many more. To all of them, thank you for being such excellent colleagues.
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