Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of transparency in policy‐making processes.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>Development and application of conceptual framework for policy studies.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>Complementarity of Habermas's theory of communicative action and Beer's Viable System Model. Relevance of the ideas of requisite organisation in policy‐making and of “orthogonality” in social communications.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Practical implications</jats:title><jats:p>Transparency of policy processes is more than making information available to stakeholders; it is enabling the development of an effective organisational system for the policy of concern.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>This paper relates Beer's organizational cybernetics and Habermas' political philosophy and produces an original model of transparency in policy‐making.</jats:p></jats:sec>