In democratic emerging countries, transparency can play an important role in reducing corruption, but only if certain barriers are overcome. This investigation contributes to transparency theory by studying the barriers to transparency and proposing a typology consisting of five barriers that lead to opacity. With focus on the public administration tasked to control corruption in the mining sector of Bhutan, we conducted 98 semi-structured interviews within seven different stakeholder groups in different regions of Bhutan to determine the barriers to transparency in fighting corruption. A qualitative analysis technique revealed first- and second-order themes resulting in five forms of opacity: idiosyncratic (nature of the industry and corruption); systemic (adequacy of information management system); deliberate (willingness to exercise control); organizational (role and process ambiguity); and capacity (sufficient resources to control). This analysis of the mining sector, a high corruption industry, in a unique, low corruption democratic emerging country, Bhutan, provides practical implications to policy-makers attempting to improve transparency, and hence, reduce corruption. Policy and managerial implications of this research include paying more attention to the national control agencies that could be improved by heeding the five key factors that we have highlighted.

中文翻译：

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不丹公共行政透明度的障碍：不透明的新类型

在民主新兴国家，透明度可以在减少腐败方面发挥重要作用，但前提是必须克服某些障碍。这项调查通过研究透明度障碍并提出由导致不透明的五个障碍组成的类型学，为透明度理论做出了贡献。我们以控制不丹采矿业腐败的公共行政为重点，对不丹不同地区的七个不同利益相关者群体进行了 98 次半结构化访谈，以确定打击腐败透明度的障碍。定性分析技术揭示了导致五种形式的不透明的一阶和二阶主题：特质（行业性质和腐败）；系统性（信息管理系统的充分性）；故意（愿意行使控制权）；组织（角色和流程模糊）；和能力（足够的资源来控制）。对采矿业这个高度腐败的行业的分析，在一个独特的、低腐败的民主新兴国家不丹，为试图提高透明度从而减少腐败的决策者提供了实际意义。这项研究的政策和管理意义包括更加关注可以通过关注我们强调的五个关键因素来改进的国家控制机构。减少腐败。这项研究的政策和管理意义包括更加关注可以通过关注我们强调的五个关键因素来改进的国家控制机构。减少腐败。这项研究的政策和管理意义包括更加关注可以通过关注我们强调的五个关键因素来改进的国家控制机构。