"Concluding reflections" [2014] ELECD 652; in Ala’i, Padideh; Vaughn, G. Robert (eds), "Research Handbook on Transparency" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) 400

Book Title: Research Handbook on Transparency

Editor(s): Ala’i, Padideh; Vaughn, G. Robert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781007938

Section Title: Concluding reflections

Number of pages: 7

Extract:

Concluding reflections


The contributors to this book have explored the values and goals support-
ing transparency provisions and identified the nuances, contradictions and
perspectives often unconsidered in invocation of the term. Their efforts
have encouraged our own thoughts about the meaning of the term. In this
regard, we place ourselves in the place of all readers who have benefited
from their analysis and insight.
As Patrick Glenn's insightful chapter discusses, while "transparency may
be thought of as the natural condition of human relations," in western
societies where both the public and private spheres are dominated by
a corporate personality with an inside/outside dichotomy, institutional
transparency is of particular importance. As a result of such institutional
closure, the questions of transparency in the west are inevitably raised by
those on the outside, such as, shareholders in the private sphere or any
group or individual seeking access to information from their governments
and those in power. In addition, since World War II, western states have
evolved into a complicated regulatory or administrative state. Since 1995,
the World Trade Organization (WTO) has promoted the adoption of a
regulatory or administrative model throughout the world by all WTO
Member States. With the creation of the administrative state, there has
been increasing emphasis on transparency provisions. Transparency provi-
sions in national and international legal regimes, such as the multilateral
trading system, have promoted greater centralization of power within
nations and uniformity on the global scale. Both uniformity and centrali-
zation of power (at ...