Abstract
A noted American historian, Henry Steele Commager, has observed that ‘[t]he generation that made the nation thought secrecy in government one of the instruments of Old World tyranny and committed itself to the principle that a democracy cannot function unless the people are permitted to know what their government is up to.’1 An oft-quoted statement by James Madison — one of this nation’s founding fathers and its fourth President — bears witness to that observation:
A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.2
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Notes
N. Dorsen and S. Gillers (eds), None of Your Business: Government Secrecy in America ( New York: The Viking Press, 1974
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© 1979 International Institute of Administrative Sciences
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Singer, M.J. (1979). United States. In: Rowat, D.C. (eds) Administrative Secrecy in Developed Countries. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04124-4_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04124-4_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-04126-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-04124-4
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