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The Perils and Promise of Transparency
5 Spot
March 2007
On Sale: March 5, 2007
296 pages ISBN: 0521876176 EAN: 9780521876179 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Which SUVs are most likely to rollover? What cities have the
unhealthiest drinking water? Which factories are the most
dangerous polluters? What cereals are the most nutritious?
In recent decades, governments have sought to provide
answers to such critical questions through public disclosure
to force manufacturers, water authorities, and others to
improve their products and practices. Corporate financial
disclosure, nutritional labels, and school report cards are
examples of such targeted transparency policies. At best,
they create a light-handed approach to governance that
improves markets, enriches public discourse, and empowers
citizens. But such policies are frequently ineffective or
counterproductive. Based on an analysis of eighteen U.S. and
international policies, Full Disclosure shows that
information is often incomplete, incomprehensible, or
irrelevant to consumers, investors, workers, and community
residents. To be successful, transparency policies must be
accurate, keep ahead of disclosers' efforts to find
loopholes, and, above all, focus on the needs of ordinary
citizens.
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