Government Transparency

Legal scholar Alasdair Roberts argues that any changes in government transparency wrought by the hordes of data revealed by WikiLeaks is more evolutionary than revolutionary.

• By Emily Badger

Tired of the same old political cronies, Berliners have voted in the Pirate Party — Internet open-source activists who hope to use online systems to improve democracy.

• By Melanie Sevcenko

The upcoming U.S. Supreme Court debate on health-care reform offers a prime time to start televising its hearings and allowing cameras in the courtroom.

• By Emily Badger

If Americans saw exactly how their specific tax dollars were being allocated, would it change the substance or tenor of discussions on, say, the debt ceiling?

• By Emily Badger

The plodding effort to bring a modicum of common sense to how the U.S. declassifies its documents has resisted most efforts to rev it up in the digital age.

• By Emily Badger

In the run-up to a debate on WikiLeaks, Julian Assange’s attorney discusses the uncomfortable relationship between the free flow of ideas and the inclination of governments to make everything a secret.

• By Emily Badger

The United States is putting its take on human rights, say, in Ivory Coast or on internet freedom, onto a new State Department human rights website, although it’s leaving criticism of itself offline.

• By Emily Badger

Efforts to roll back the federal budget to 2008 levels may have the unintended consequence of gutting spending aimed at fostering government transparency.

• By Emily Badger

Yale's Bruce Ackerman, a constitutional scholar, warns that unilateralism in the "most dangerous branch" of government is setting the stage for a tragic future.

• By Melinda Burns

The Obama administration's stated push for more government openness hasn't fully manifested itself in the Freedom of Information arena.

• By Emily Badger

Nudge-meister Cass Sunstein sings the praises of open government and transparency.

• By Emily Badger