J.H. Snider is a scholar who has written extensively about new technology and democracy. He is the president of iSolon.org and an affiliated researcher at Columbia University’s Institute for Tele-Information. He was research director for the New America Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank. His books include Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick: How Local TV Broadcasters Exert Political Power and Future Shop. Snider has a Ph.D. in American Government from Northwestern University, an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, and an undergraduate degree in Social Studies from Harvard College. His work at the Shorenstein Center focused on the role of information policy in enhancing democracy.
Would You Ask Turkeys to Mandate Thanksgiving? The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency
June 1, 2008
J.H. Snider, spring 2008 fellow, discusses problems with government transparency, and the feasibility of potential solutions in two papers. Paper #1: The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prevents legislators from infringing on the freedom of the press. However, legislators have been granted monopoly control of legislative information systems,
