Transcript is transparency a luxury item?

IS TRANSPARENCY A
LUXURY ITEM?
• SECURITY THREATS
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Prof Al Roberts
CLIMATE CHANGE
Joseph Foti, WRI
GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS
Sean Moulton, OMB Watch
RESPONDENT
Tom Susman, ABA
Transparency may be
‘delivering’,
but won’t it sometimes
‘get in the way’?
SECURITY THREATS, CLIMATE
CHANGE & ECONOMIC CRISIS…
Competing Public Interest Concerns
• ‘Higher Public Interest Concerns’: safety; global
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warming; economic growth/jobs…
Secrecy ‘Trumps’ Transparency…
Public demand for transparency is less
If they are determined to keep it secret they will
anyway…
All highly technical anyway…no point, and no
need to know
ISSUES:
• Openness in the ‘wrong’ places may undermine
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the ‘cause’ of transparency
Some ‘Strategic’ Secrecy is necessary to win the
overall war for openness?
Higher Test to satisfy….
Avoid glib arguments; need to be specific about
the competing public interest concerns
TEST
• To see if we can make the case for transparency
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even in most demanding of cases/policy areas
If we can’t win the argument here, not much
point winning it elsewhere
Equally: proponents of secrecy, must be specific
about why transparency is counter-productive or
has unintended consequences