The bases of bureaucratic governance are to monopolize and control information. Power Information prescribes action in all administrative systems. The prime sources are legislation, government ordinances, regulations, memoranda, sessions, minutes, and investigative reports. In a democracy, power is ultimately in public hands. Disclosing national information simply means restoring that power and final decision-making authority to the people.
Disclosure is essential to exercising that right.
In the U.S. Constitution, Madison included an amendment requiring disclosure by retaining the minutes for each congress permitted to concentrate power as the legislature. The 1966 Free Information Act decentralized bureaucratic power and secrecy that contravened the national foundations. Since then, Congress has amended the act five times, revising and renaming it the Free Electronic Information Law in 1996 to reflect the computerization of administrative information. Other disclosure initiatives included the 1935 Federal Public Announcement Records Act and the 1947 Administrative Procedures Act. To mark the 200th an niversary of the Library of Congress, the National Public Document Archives were established in 1937.