Is Government Transparency Essential in a Democracy?
Government transparency is a basic tenet of American democracy. But the US Constitution was drafted in total secrecy and the founders believed they couldn\u2019t have done the job otherwise. When is openness best in a democracy, and when does the cost outweigh the benefit? In this podcast episode we hear the case for more openness from a citizen who used public records law to hold a state university accountable. A political historian explains how the founding fathers justified drafting the Constitution in secret and how that shaped the form of democracy the US has today. We also speak with elected legislators from three different states grappling with the best way to balance the financial and logistical challenges of making government records open to the public. The lawmakers also differ in how much of their own email and text communication should be open to the public. A political scientist who\u2019s studied transparency in democracy describes how openness can empower special interest groups and make political gridlock worse. We discuss systemic solutions that could make government transparency work better for all Americans. \n\nPodcast Guests: \nAnne Mabry, citizen activist and retired professor of English at New Jersey City University\n\nKatlyn Carter, professor of history at Notre Dame, author of \u201cDemocracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions\u201d\n\nWashington State Representative Peter Abbarno\n\nArizona State Senator John Kavanagh\n\nArkansas Senate President Pro Tem Bart Hester\n\nBruce Cain, professor of political science at Stanford University, author of \u201cDemocracy More or Less: America\u2019s Political Reform Quandary\u201d