Transparency and Secrecy in European Democracies

This edited volume offers a critical discussion of the trade-offs between transparency and secrecy in the actual political practice of democratic states in Europe. Focusing on topical cases and controversies in various policy areas, the contributors reconstruct the history and provide an overview of transparency measures in the European democracies, reflect on the justification and limits of the use of secrecy in democratic governance, register the social, cultural, and historical factors that inform this process and explore the criteria used by European legislators and policy-makers when balancing interests on the sides of transparency and secrecy, respectively.

 

The volume answers to a growing need to systematically analyses the problem of secrecy in governance in this political and geographical context.