Due progressive influence of the Open-Government movement as an emerging paradigm over several nation state-reforms and over debates and processes around the world (Ramírez-Alujas & Cruz-Rubio, 2012) this paper seeks to identify and explore the main elements in defining and analyzing policy designs in the face of the Open Government perspective. Specifically, this effort addresses several questions: What policy-design dimensions (tools, instruments and rationales) may define a policy design as an “open policy design”? What directions should take policy-research in order to cope adequately with this (presumably) new subject of study?
