Reputation-Based Governance
Lucio Picci
Stanford University Press
<p><span>It  would be easy to cheat someone on eBay. However, an essential  characteristic of the site prevents this from happening: buyer and  seller reviews form what amounts to an "index of reputation." The  availability of such an index provides a strong incentive to be an  honest trader. </span></p><p><span>Reputation-Based Governance</span><span>  melds concepts from businesses like eBay with politics. Author Lucio  Picci uses interdisciplinary tools to argue that the intelligent use of  widely available Internet technologies can strengthen reputational  mechanisms and significantly improve public governance. Based on this  notion, the book proposes a governance model that leans on the concept  of reputational incentives while discussing the pivotal role of  reputation in politics today. Picci argues that a continuous,  distributed process of assessing policy outcomes, enabled by an  appropriate information system, would contribute to a governance model  characterized by effectiveness, efficiency, and a minimum amount of  rent-seeking activity. Moreover, if citizens were also allowed to  express their views on </span><span>prospective</span><span>  policies, then reputation-based governance would provide a platform on  which to develop advanced forms of participative democracy.</span></p>