Harvard Shorenstein Paper on Legislative Transparency

[John Wonderlich]

Jim Snyder has posted a new academic research paper through Harvard's Shorenstein Center, on legislative transparency, entitled Would You Ask Turkeys To Mandate Thanksgiving? The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency . 

The first part of the paper explains the inherent conflict of interest involved in legislators having responsibility for publishing legislative data.  He examines the example of roll call votes, looking at cost and implementation across both Congress and state level state-funded databases.  The second part of the paper examines citizen assemblies as a corrective mechanism against situations where legislators have an inherent conflict of interest.

I've been excited about the contents of Jim's research for several weeks, especially the first paper with such direct bearing on Open House Project priorities, so I'm happy to share it here now that the papers are public.

(and if I've portrayed anything inaccurately, I'm sure Jim will correct me.)

--
John Wonderlich

Program Director
The Sunlight Foundation
(202) 742-1520 ext. 234

[John Wonderlich]

I did make one mistake: correct spelling should be Snider, not Snyder.

(sorry!)