Let there be light
During the first full day of his presidency, Obama proved his commitment to keeping his promise by publishing two executive orders and three presidential memorandums to his Web site for anyone to view. Two of those memos pertain to the issue of openness and encourages other governmental agencies to engage citizens in their government more.
Even with all the talk about transparency, the Obama administration has yet to really define exactly what governmental transparency is. So far, the only detail given from White House officials is that executive department and agencies should use new technologies, primarily the internet, to publish items for public access.
Despite the vagueness of Obama’s definition of transparency, students remain hopeful about the administration’s pledge.
“Thank God someone is [being open],” freshman Emily McCollum said. “Obviously the previous systems have not worked and with the direction that the world is going we need a vast change and if this is what’s going to work, bravo.”
Other students remained more hesitant about the president’s pledge.
“I didn’t vote for him, but I’m willing to give him a chance,” sophomore Chris Smith said.
Freshman mass communication major Joe Langford is wary due to past politicians.
“I think it’s a worthy cause, but considering all the political corruption of the last 50 years I think it’s a huge promise to live up to,” Langford said.
Michael Digby, chair of the department of government and sociology, argues that about Obama’s plans to follow through with his promise will be short lived. Digby cites presidential history to back up his claim.
“One of the things that we’ve seen in the past is that after a president has been in the White House for a few weeks or a few months it becomes more and more difficult to follow through particularly on the openness and transparency claims because of the sheer fact that you’ve got to make policy,” Digby said.
If the Obama administration does manage to keep the open door policy in the White House, they will need to figure out how much information the public should have access to. Digby says that the amount of information the public should receive depends on the subject matter.
“There are certain fields like treaty talks and weapons systems where you simply have to keep some things private and secret,” Digby said. “In a domestic area where the survival of the country is not going to be at stake by some other country attacking us, its hard to arargue that the public can know too much.”
On the cautious side, Dr. Jerry Herbel, a professor in the Government and Sociology department, sees providing the public with large amounts of information a possible tool for government to use to its advantage.
“Transparency can be misleading,” said Herbel. “The government can hide things by putting so much out there for the public to wade through.”
All the modern technology in the world has made it easier for information to reach the mass public. For the most part, this information sharing positively contributes to our nation and its well-being.
Some people out there use these tools of mass communication to publish sensitive documents from governmental agencies. One such Web site, http://www.cryptome.org, posts memos on issues like security threats to major events, or the national transportation plan of our national nuclear waste. Many argue releasing information of this sort could possibly compromise national security and secrets.
“In the abstract you could say that those who have access to the public through websites to be discreet in what they publish,” said Digby. “It’s real, real hard for anybody who’sa journalist-I guess some of the folks who have the Web sites could be called journalists in some ways-for them not to print something because the desire to put things our there and to scoop and be the first is a powerful thing.”
On top of providing the public with information, President Obama also promises that his administration will be receptive to feedback and listen to all citizens, even those who didn’t vote for him. The President’s Web site contains quite a few places and ways citizens can give their opinions. Whether contacted by the online form, postal mail, telephone or fax, the executive branch encourages commendation, comments and critiques.
This new open door policy in the White House represents a shift from the way the executive branch has been ran in the past. Despite this change in direction, Herbel warns that citizens should not be too demanding of the government.
“Nobody should expect significant policy change based on a comment box,” said Herbel.
By promising openness and candor, Obama risks losing a lot by going back on their word. Vowing to provide more information to the public is a valiant deed, but the Obama administration needs to find a balance between providing the public with too much information and not letting enough information out.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Jan 30 2009. Filed under News.
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