Democracy and Transparency

[sychobunny]

Democracy: a type of government controlled by the populace. Most often found as an electoral democracy, where the populace elects other people to make the decisions, so there are fewer elections, because consensus quite often takes too much time.

One of the traits of a democracy is transparency (the ability of the populace to know the goings on of the state). This is because voters need to know what is being voted on. In most cases, it is up to the voter to research the topic and come to their own conclusion.

The question is, does this really exist.

I say yes (And I would document stuff but apparently most of my poly sci books are at my mothers, and I'll research more as the thread continues, which I hope it does because I'm going to the trouble of opening up debate instead of replying in off topicness elsewhere).
1) As a voter, I actually take the right seriously, and do research topics.
2) Without transparency, there is a dictatorship, as there really is not choice
3) Some states have shown themselves to be less transparent, but still claim to be democracies. I argue that they aren't democracies, but something in transition to becoming one
4) Matters of Security (US) are generally kept secret, and this would seem to be an act of non-transparancy, but there are rules that state that all information must be made public sometime. This has in some cases been 20 years, but the records have been released.
5) In a democracy, ALL meetings/ hearings are recorded for the purpose of transparency.

I'm writing this kind of fast, but would be happy to reply to your replies for further explanation.

Also know: A state, when I use the term is a group of people who are governed, with territorial boundries; a country.

Please no really bad conspiracy theories!

[Maeve]

Duh, I would have loved some bad conspiracy theory...

Anyway, I think transparency exists in most democratic states. Obviously, that doesn't normally included security matters, because if everyone could have access to it, bad people could to. Most security agencies make their reports public after 20-25 years, or when they think their is no more use to keep those private.

The other thing is, most democratic states have laws that force them to make "almost" everything public. You can have access to almost any file from your government for information purpose, but you often need to ask for it, or just make researches, which a lot of people don't take the time to do. I have the right to vote and, mostly before elections, I take the time to look to the different options/topics there are, and try to stay inform during the rest of the time via Internet or TV news. But that's not the case of everyone, so you can often hear people say: "I didn't know that. The government tried to hide something..." when some news come out, and you're like: "But it was written everywhere...". Plus, if something was really hidden and that people start asking for it, it would probably come out sooner than later, because most democracy are elected, and the party that's governing usually wants to stay in power, so it would probably released the information people want to show how nice it is...

Now, I could probably go on for a while about this, but I agree with most of the things you said, so there's no point in repeating those...

*sits in a corner and wait for an answer"

[sychobunny]

XD I agree!
I think the pursuit of power (in gov=keeping/advancing your job) is commonly overlooked as a reason for the government to adhere to the wishes of the people. Especially in a democracy, where the public's voicing of opinions is made to be easily facilitated.

NUUU bad conspiracy theories hurt my brain!
And in the case of many, my eyes too; they're the worst photoshopping jobs, I've seen better ones with paint! D;

[OMG MY FACE]

[Transcendence]

I think that any state, country etc, that tried being completely transparent would be taken out in a small while. they would allow anyone to know their secrets and such and soon one loan citizen would take over the main government or some country would be able to easily see their weakness and destroy them in war.

I do wish that sometimes our America was a little bit more transparent. Honestly what is so interested at Area 51 that allows the government to kill anyone on site that goes there and tries to enter without permission. I dont think it is right because it should be our right to see what they are working on there.

[Iregyura]

I have to say that I agree. We kind of "need" transparency in our government. Though I don't vote, or either that I'm not allowed to, let's not get into that but I think that well...Yah. Still, even if I'm not into politics, I still get most of it, I guess. Like their President speeches. Or whatnot.
Anyways, I still believe that transparency exists. Yah, privacy and stuff still counts, but we still need the transparency. Yay. So that's pretty much my theory thing, but note that I'm not at all that knowledgeable about the thingy. I'm kind of a slow learner. Haha. Sorry, I know this doesn't help...........