In today's article entitled Transparency Meme Creeps Closer, we report on how the idea of "transparency" for democratic institutions is seemingly an elite dominant social theme.
Julian Assange has written a good deal about making democracies more "transparent" via online activism; but some of what Assange does is dubious, and generally the transparency movement seems more about sustaining the worst aspects of regulatory democracy rather than getting rid of them. (In other words, fix the corruption, say, of taxing authorities but don't lower taxes, etc.)
The "transparency" movement, by now, has spawned a formal institution complete with meetings and publications – and the media is touting the concept more and more. It's not just the New York Times.
Even the Chinese communists are big on transparency. This video, uploaded by ChinaForbiddenNews on Sep. 29, 2011, reports on a release from Beijing University's Public Participation in Research and Support Center. It's produced something called "China's Administrative Transparency Report" and the video goes over the results.
We're glad the ChiComs are worried about making their government institutions more transparent. Now, how about making the Internet more "transparent" as well by stopping the censorship ...
(Video linked from ChinaForbiddenNews.)