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The Mosaic Theory
Over the last decade, many of the legal disputes that have arisen in the context of national security have concerned information - the withholding of it, the suppression of it, the collection of it, or the safeguarding of it. Frequently, these disputes have involved an argument known as the "mosaic" theory. The theory is straightforward: Seemingly insignificant information may become significan…
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 873 - 882
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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The Inverse Relationship between Secrecy and Privacy
In civil libertarian discourse, the inverse relationship between government secrecy and privacy is well recognized and widely acknowledged - so widely, in fact, that it can come to seem as though we might regain sufficient privacy simply by cabining official secrecy. But regimes of secrecy that insulate private-sector data processing practices also contribute materially to the decline of privac…
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 883 - 898
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Introduction : Limits to Knowledge? No Easy Answer
On the question before us - are there conditions that call for limiting knowledge in a democracy? - principles of unfettered scientific inquiry and of a free press were more than a half-century ago challenged by the restrictive "need-to-know" policies of the security state. Today we continue the hard intellectual work initiated by our predecessors faced with the unprecedented destructive power …
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 901 - 904
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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When Worlds Collide : Health Surveillance, Privacy, and Public Policy
Surveillance serves as the eyes of public health. It has provided the foundation for planning, intervention, and disease prevention and has been critical for epidemiology research into patterns of morbidity and mortality for a wide variety of disease and conditions. Registries have been essential for tracking individuals and their conditions over time. Surveillance has also served to trigger th…
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 905 - 928
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Introduction : Points of Control
Who deserves to know what? What are the mechanisms for limiting knowledge in the United States today? When does the public have a right to know? The concern about what should be deemed confidential weaces through all four papers in this section. The overdeveloped world celebrates the rule of new social media, which allows for more speech by more people while also making them more vulnerable to …
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 931 - 940
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Secrecy in Three Acts
In June 1979, Congress passed the Espionage Act, the first act of the three secrecy-defining statutes that have shaped so much of the last hundred years of modern American secrecy doctrine. Together with two other statutes that followed in later decades-the Atomic Energy Acts of 1946 and 1954, and the Patriot Act of 2001-these three Acts picked out inflection points in the great ratcheting proc…
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 941 - 974
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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The Obama Administration's Commitment to Transparency : A Progress Report
Transparency isn't the answer to everything, but one lesson I've learned in more than 20 years as an investigative reporter is that it is one critical step in keeping the public a key part of our democratic system and ensuring checks and balances in government. This is a principle shared not only by gadfly journalists themselves, but also by some government officials on the other side of the fi…
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 975 - 980
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Four Phases of Internet Regulation
The four phases of Internet regulation are the "open Internet" period, from the network's birth through about 2000; "access denied," through about 2005; "access controlled," through the present day (2010); and "access contested," the phase into which we are entering.
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 981 - 996
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Normal Science and Limits on Knowledge : What We Seek to Know, What We Choose…
We can't know everything; in fact, compared to the vast expanses of our ignorance, we can't really know very much. So the problem of "limiting knowledge" is not just one of the conflict between efforts to make knowledge available and efforts to keep knowledge locked up. There is also the often-invisible problem of how we decide what it is we are going to try to know, and what, as a consequence,…
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 997 - 1010
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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What We Have Learned about Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy
Aryeh Neier: The topic of this session is "What We Have Learned about Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy," and it says we should discuss "how should we proceed and where should lines be drawn?" I'm going to conduct a conversation in which I will focus on this question of limits. The panel is very distinguished, very diverse, and I think we ought to be able to anticipate a diversity of views. All…
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- Volume 77, Number 3 / Fall 2010, Pp. 1013 - 1051
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Democracy, Political Power, and Authority
This article explores the conditions of possibility for democracy through the analysis of power and authority. Political power, as distinct from coercion, is the key to democracy, as a set of institutions for managing conflict. These institutions presuppose authority, which constitutes a performative act that is validated relative to local perceptions of reasonableness. Democratic power constit…
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1049 - 1074
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Democratic Accountability in Development : The Double Standard
Aid agencies and European and American development professionals, with occasional exceptions, have a double standard on political and civil liberties in the world. While this group would never countenance major violations of liberties in their home countries, they appear largely indifferent to whether such liberties exist in developing countries. Some in this group would go further and welcome …
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1075 - 1104
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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The Political Economy of Natural Resources
The rise in world prices of natural resources, coupled with the resource discoveries induced by high prices, is transforming Africa's opportunities. The economic future of Africa will be determined by whether this opportunity is seized or missed. The history of resource extraction in Africa is not encouraging. This paper reviews and develops the political economy of natural resources as a guide…
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1105 - 1132
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Democracy in Africa : A Very Short History
When discussing governance in Africa, one must be circumspect when applying the term "democracy." One reason for doing so is because the term is imprecise. However, while differing in the attributes they posit and the qualifications they impose, those who write of democracy join in emphasizing its essential property: that it is a form of government in which political power is employed to serve …
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1133 - 1148
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Aid, Accountability, and Democracy in Africa
At the core of democracy is the idea that governments must be systematically responsive to the desires and interests of citizens as expressed through the electoral process which is the principal mechanism of democratic accountability as it is through this process that politicians are called to account by a sovereign electorate with powers to sanction them. The effectiveness of the process depen…
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1149 - 1182
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Traditional Institutions and the State of Accountability in Africa
Mythology about Africa still persists. It served colonial interests to portray African natives as "savages" with no history and their indigenous institutions as "backward and primitive." Therefore, colonialism was "good" for them as it "civilized" them and freed them from their "terrible and despotic" traditional rulers. Of course, much of this mythology has been tossed into the trash bin. Afri…
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1183 - 1210
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Accountability in Africa and the International Community
Much of the recent scholarship on the problem of political accountability in Africa leans toward the proposition that it is largely a post-colonial phenomenon that was caused by the destruction of the democratic institutions that were inherited by Africa's political elites. By replacing the democratic institutions they inherited from European colonial powers with quasi-democratic and downright …
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1241 - 1280
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Toward an Accountable Budget Process in Sub-Saharan Africa : Problems and Pro…
Of the many factors contributing to the relative under-development across sub-Saharan Africa over the past five decades, one cause that is currently gaining more attention from both scholars and development practitioners is the lack of a transparent and accountable national budget process in most African countries. Although most African constitutions provide for a number of mechanisms of accoun…
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1281 - 1310
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Colonial and Postcolonial State and Development in Africa
This article examines the colonial and post colonial state and development in Africa; it does so by trying to answer the following questions: what is the nature of the African state and when did impunity become the norm? Who is the colonial and post-colonial state accountable to and how does this impact the welfare of the majority of the people? How can the state be reconstituted in the interes…
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010, Pp. 1311 - 1338
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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Reconstituting Africa's Failed States : The Case of Somalia
Constitutional federalism is usually suggested as an appropriate and effective form of government for a country that is characterized by significant levels of ethnic diversity. Hence, where destructive ethnic mobilization has resulted in state failure, the suggestion has usually been for the country to adopt some form of constitutional federalism as a way to more effectively manage diversity an…
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- Volume 77, Number 4 / Winter 2010 Pp. 1339 - 1366
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- 0037783X
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- Social Research An International Quarterly
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