Rebag in brief

From REBAG

Reputation-based Governance (from now on, Rebag) is a framework to address governance issues that hinge on the reputation of the actors of governance. The idea is simple: if the persons who are in charge of a given policy improve (damage) their reputation by performing well (badly), and if reputation has a value to them, then the quality of what they do will tend to be high. In order for this to happen, it is essential that policies and their effects are accurately monitored and assessed.

Confining ourselves to an essential description of Rebag, two more ingredients are relevant. First, the assessment of policies is done by the people whom the policies affect. For example, the end users of a public work - say, for a school, the local community where it is located would be able to voice their opinions on it. Second, Rebag needs an adequate Internet-based information systems, that caters for the organization, flows, and pubblicity of all the relevant information.

In principle, Rebag can be applied both within the public and the private sector. However, emphasys here is placed on public governance and, more to the point, on the management of "policies". Policies can be either "projects", i.e., intiatives having a goal well specified in advance and lasting a definite amount of time (such as, the building of a new bridge), or "programs", i.e., services that are delivered over a period of time (for example, an educational degree by a public university).

One interesting, even if partial, example of Rebag is provided by the auction site eBay (www.ebay.com). There, both sellers and buyers have an incentive to be honest and efficient because they are subject to the evaluation of their counterpart: a seller receving many negative comments from previous buyers would find it difficult to conduct business on eBay, and a buyer in the same predicament would have a hard time doing his shopping. Fear of acquiring a bad reputation represents a strong incentive, and the observed equilibrium on eBay is one where most people are honest.

eBay is also a well studied example of an "Internet-based Reputation System" (IBRS)(see Dellarocas, 2003). IBRS and Rebag are related, in the sense that IBRSs are part of the Rebag definition. Rebag represents a broader framework and concept compared to an IBRS, because it addresses public governance from a very general point of view and is concerned with its many facets. One way to start appreciating the breadth of the approach is by introducing a series of issues that are all integrant parts of the Rebag concept.