26 Oct 2016 | 12:00pm - 2:00pm | Seminar room SG2, Alison Richard Building. |
- Description
Description
Free and open to all but Online Registration is required. Limited places
Public Lecture
Benjamin Worthy (Politics, Birkbeck)
Why do governments pass freedom of information laws? The symbolic power and force surrounding FOI makes it appealing as an electoral promise but hard to disengage from once in power. Behind closed doors compromises and manoeuvres ensure that bold policies are seriously weakened before they reach the statute book. This presentation focuses on the battle over the UK's Freedom of Information Act between 1997 and 2000 and then looks at how the paradoxes and the disruptive, dynamic and democratic effects of the law have continued to cause controversy once in operation.
The presentation is based on the forthcoming book Worthy, Ben (2017) ‘The Politics of Freedom of Information: How and Why Governments Pass Laws That Threaten Their Power’. Manchester: MUP. You can visit his blog at https://opendatastudy.wordpress.com/
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Part of The Politics and Paradoxes of Transparency, Research Group series
Administrative assistance: gradfac@crassh.cam.ac.uk