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Democracy Declassified tackles an enduring question of particular current importance: How do democratic governments balance the need for foreign policy secrecy with accountability to the public? Secrecy has national security uses, but it can also be abused.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Contents
- I Democracy Classified: The Uses of Secrecy
- 1 Theories of Democratic Transparency and Foreign Policy Success
- 2 Not So Exceptional: The Theory, Uses, and Reality of National Security
- Secrecy in Democracies
- II The Abuses of Secrecy and Public Consent
- 3 The Potential Abuses of National Security Secrecy
- 4 The Consequences of Potential Abuse for Public Consent
- III Democracy Declassified: the Dilemma and Oversight
- 5 Solving the Secrecy Dilemma
- 6 The Consequences of National Security Oversight in Democracies
- IV The Evidence
- 7 A View of National Security Oversight Institutions
- 8 Revealing Evidence: Support, Spending and Success
- V Conclusion
- 9 Implications and Innovations
- Appendices: Formal Models, Data and Statistical Result
- Bibliography
About the author
Michael P. Colaresi is Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University.
Summary
Democracy Declassified tackles an enduring question of particular current importance: How do democratic governments balance the need for foreign policy secrecy with accountability to the public? Secrecy has national security uses, but it can also be abused.
Additional text
Colaresi has written a really exceptional book, which lays solid foundations for an important new research agenda on democracy, secrecy and foreign policy. But Democracy Declassified does much more; in scope, execution and timeliness, it has fundamental implications for various research traditions in political science as well as policy. The mastery of historical detail, care of modeling and attention to detail in its carefully collected new data and analysis make this book an example of the very best scholarship.
