Some people believe it is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. Others believe that the public has a right to be fully informed.
Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented.
The public should have the rights to be full informed because of the nature of the relationship between the public and the government in terms of taxation and representation. As for the information that is sensitive for security reasons, it should be declassified within a limited period of time.
The nature of taxation is the first reason why information about government policy making should be made public.
- The political leaders are essentially the officials hired by the public with tax money; the contractual relationship means that the tax payers have the rights to monitor how the government officials do their jobs.
- the public also have the right to know how the government spends the tax money and whether the funded projects made a difference
the nature of representation is the second reason why information about legislative processes should be made public
- the power of the legislature comes from the voters
- they are supposed to represent the interests of their constituency
- their voting records should be publicly available so the voters can see if the public officials deliver their promises
- the public can then decide if they want to support the politicians again in the next election
- this is the mechanism to ensure that the legislators can be trustworthy
certain information may be withheld temporarily for the sake of national security but eventually should be subject to the public scrutiny
- for security reasons certain information may be classified
- how the leaders negotiate a peace treaty with other states
- how the military actions were planned and executed
But such information should be released in 20 or 50 years so that the politicians may take into account the long-term reputation and legitimacy of their parties when making decisions