Description
Book SynopsisThis book questions the theoretical premises and practical applications of transparency, showing both the promises and perils of transparency in a methodologically innovative way and in a cross-section of policy instruments. It scrutinizes transparency from three perspectives - methodologically, theoretically, and empirically - both in the specific context of the EU but also in the wider context of modern society in which transparency is embraced as an almost unquestionable virtue. This book examines the ways in which transparency practices can make institutions visible and stands out for its methodological self-reflection: to fully understand the irresistible call for transparency in our governing institutions, we must reflect on our own relationship with it. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of transparency studies, democratic legitimacy, global governance, governance law, EU studies and law and public policy more widely.
Table of Contents1. Introduction: European Government Transparency beyond the Slogans PART 1 2. Transparency as a Critical Research Agenda: Engaging with the EU Institutions on Access to Documents 3. What is the Purpose of Regulation 1049/2001? An Empirical Analysis of Member State Positions 4. Interpretive Approaches in Transparency Studies: Gaining New Perspectives on Old Problems 5. Learning Through Rejection: Studying the Informalisation of EU Readmission Policy with Access to Documents Requests PART 2 6. The Human Face of Legal Transparency? Performance in Action 7. Toward Radical Transparency 8. Escaping the Transparency Trap: In Defense of Playacting 9. Algorithms and the Open Society: New Approaches to Information, Transparency and Accountability 10. Government Transparency: Dispelling the Myth PART 3 11. “Off paper”: The Transparency Dilemma in EU Institutions 12. Transparency as Enabling Citizen-participation: The Quality of Public Information on EU Decision-making Processes 13. Access to documents and the EU agency Frontex: Growing pains or outright obstruction? 14. The Council Presidency, brought to you by Coca-Cola: Transparency about Commercial Sponsoring 15. EU Agencies and Lobbying Transparency Rules: A Case Study on the Islandization of Transparency? 16. "Mediated Transparency": The Digital Services Act and the legitimization of platform power 17. Epilogue: Against transparency. For engaged publics
