The Transparency Paradox: Questioning an Ideal

The call for transparency is all around us. It has grown exponentially over the last decades: states, global institutions, and even private enterprises have sought to bolster their legitimacy by opening their proceedings to stakeholders. The idea that transparency is inherently good for institutions and society in general has become unquestionable, but at the same time, what is meant by transparency has become harder and harder to pin down.

The Transparency Paradox is a compact theoretical account of the hidden functioning logic of the ideal of transparency and its legal manifestations. The discussion moves from analysis of transparency as a concept to transparency as a governance ideal, with its promise and perils. How does law influence the creation of transparency? Is transparency a global (legal) value? Can it be? The position of the beholder and the representation of governance institutions are elaborated, and the reality principle, on which transparency is premised, is questioned.

The book creates a matrix for future research and socio-legal imagining, and it encourages analysis of both the current call for transparency as well as declining belief in facts and truth. Perhaps the legitimacy produced by transparency practices is enough to enable public debate and democratic control of power. The future will tell.