Increasing Government Transparancy

[Mr Skeptic]

What with the issue of Wikileaks now in the news, the issue of government transparency is now in the public eye. Do we need more transparency? If so, how could we go about increasing transparency?

[jackson33]

What with the issue of Wikileaks now in the news, the issue of government transparency is now in the public eye. [/Quote]

 

Skeptic, I'm not sure Government Transparency became an issue over recent Wilileaks revelations or the ever increasing secrecy on how Congress and Executive Branches work together* or the methods used to determine legislation. Behind closed doors, voting at midnight on Christmas eve, anonymous vote casting by members in the House, back room deals admittedly not reading or understanding what's being voted on and like practices.

 

We probably all agree some things are best not addressed/mentioned by members of Government for assorted reasons, but the process leading to what law (legislation) will mean to individual people or States is another issue.

 

*The purpose of the President or Executive Branch is to administer and enforce existing law, while the Congress is charged with legislating law and they should not be mixed.

 

Do we need more transparency? If so, how could we go about increasing transparency? [/Quote]

 

Yes we need it, if for no other reason than most legislation in some manner will effect the population. It might lead to 24/7 campaign speeches, but I hope the people could/would pick up and this and get rid of them....

 

With the above in mind, probably allowing camera's into areas where Congress is forming legislation, debating the SUBSTANCE of some issue, either with C-Span or token reporters would be nice. All Judicial Courts keep actuate and verifiable accounting (court reporters) of all activity and to my knowledge nothing of the sort happens in any Congressional Sub-Committee and probably should, especially without any public viewing. It would be nice to see how such 2-3,000 page law (legislation) is produced, even though most of us know it's formed by staffers/lawyers from maybe a 5-10 page outline...

[Dak]

without transparency, we don't know what they're doing, and therefore can't make an informed decision, thus spoiling the point of democracy.

 

So... yes, we need a lot more. Not 100%, but a lot more than we have now.

[CaptainPanic]

What with the issue of Wikileaks now in the news, the issue of government transparency is now in the public eye. Do we need more transparency? If so, how could we go about increasing transparency?

Don't pretend that "transparency" is something like rocket science. It's just a matter of telling the people what the government is doing, and why it's doing that. The government in a democracy represents the people - so logically, transparency is essential, since it's the people that make the decisions (or choose the parties based on information) in a true democracy.

 

If a government is fair and honest, then it's very easy to be transparent. And there are enough media to facilitate the transparency.