Democracy declassified
Subtitle: the secrecy dilemma in national security
By: Michael P. Colaresi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 379
ISBN-13: 9780199389773
Subjects: Internal security; Government information; National security; Democracy; Government accountability; Official secrets; Security classification (Government documents)
Description: Recent scandals like WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden's disclosure of NSA documents have brought public debates over government accountability and secrecy bubbling to the surface. How can modern democracies balance the need for privacy in delicate foreign policy matters with the necessity of openness in gaining and maintaining the trust of citizens? Domocracies keep secrets from potential enemies and their citizens. This simple fact challenges the surprisingly prevalent assumption that foreign policy successes and failures can be attributed to public transparency and accountability. In fact, the ability to keep secrets has aided democratic victories from the European and Pacific theaters in World War II to the global competition of the Cold War. At the same time, executive discretion over the capacity to classify information created the opportunity for abuse that contributed to Watergate, as well as domestic spying and repression in France, Norway, and Canada over the past forty years.^

Therefore, democracies face a secrecy dilemma. Secrecy is useful, but once a group or person has the ability to decide what information is concealed from a rival, citizens can no longer monitor that information. How then can the public be assured that national security policies are not promoting hidden corruption or incompetence? As Democracy Declassified shows, it is indeed possible for democracies to keep secrets while also maintaining useful national security oversight institutions that can deter abuse and reassure the public. Understanding secrecy and oversight in democracies helps us explain not only why the Maginot Line rose and the French Republic fell, or how the US stumbled but eventually won the Cold War, but more generally how democracies can benefit from both public consent and necessary national security secrets.^

At a time when ubiquitous debates over the issue of institutional accountability and transparency have reached a fever pitch, Democracy Declassified provides a grounded and important view on the connection between the role of secrecy in democratic governance and foreign policymaking. -- from dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I. Democracy classified: the uses of secrecy. Theories of democratic transparency and foreign policy success ; Not so exceptional : the theory, uses, and reality of national security secrecy in democracies; title: Part II. The abuses of secrecy and public consent. The potential abuses of national security secrecy ; The consequences of potential abuse for public consent; title: Part III. Democracy declassified: the dilemma and oversight. Solving the secrecy dilemma ; The consequences of national security oversight in democracies; title: Part IV. The evidence. A view of national security oversight institutions ; Revealing evidence : support, spending, and success; title: Conclusion; title: Implications and innovations; title: Apendix: formal models, data and statistical results.