Overview

Among politicians and policy-makers it is almost universally assumed that more transparency in government is better. Until now, philosophers have almost completely ignored the topic of transparency, and when it is discussed there seems to be an assumption (shared with politicians and policy-makers) that increased transparency is a good thing, which results in no serious attempt to justify it. In this book Brian Kogelmann shows that the standard narrative is false and that many arguments in defence of transparency are weak. He offers a comprehensive philosophical analysis of transparency in government, examining both abstract normative defences of transparency, and transparency's role in the theory of institutional design. His book shows that even when the arguments in favour of transparency are compelling, the costs associated with it are just as forceful as the original arguments themselves, and that strong arguments can be made in defence of more opaque institutions.

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9781108978248

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Reviews

'… Secret Government impressively and provocatively decenters publicity as a democratic value.' Mark Fenster, The Review of Politics

Author Information

Brian Kogelmann is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on the intersection of philosophy, political science and economics, and he has published articles in journals including the Journal of Philosophy, American Political Science Review and the American Journal of Political Science.

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