Transparency and Secrecy in European Democracies

Dorota Mokrosinska is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy and the Programme Director of the Centre for Political Philosophy at Leiden University, The Netherlands.

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. As such, it answers to a growing need to systematically analyse the problem of secrecy in governance in this political and geographical context.

Introduction: Transparency and Secrecy in European Democracies Part I: The Drive to Transparency 1. The Janus Face of Transparency: Balancing Openness and Secrecy in Democratic Decision-making 2. Freedom of Information in Europe: Creation, Context and Conflict Part II: Transparency and Secrecy: Day-to-Day Trade-offs 3. The Ambiguity of Leaks: Transparency and Secrecy in the EU 4. European Secrecy and Post-9/11 Security Practice 5. What the Eye Cannot See: Justifying Limits to Freedom of Information in the Diplomatic Context 6. Self-reinforcing Secrecy: Cultures of Secrecy within Intelligence Agencies 7. Paradoxical secrecy in British Freedom of Information Law Part III: Oversight and Accountability 8. Secrecy and the Preservation of the Democratic State: The Concept of Raison d'état in the German Bundestag 9. State Secrecy in the Age of Terror: The Italian Case in a Comparative Perspective 10. Political Whistleblowing in Europe: Official Secrets, Freedom of Expression and the Rule of Law