A Great and Revolutionary Law? The First Four Years of India’s Right to Information Act

India’s 2005 Right to Information Act (RTIA) is among dozens of national laws recently adopted similar to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Drawing on several large studies examining the act’s implementation, the author finds that Indian citizens filed about 2 million requests for information under the RTIA during its first two and half years. However, use of the law was constrained by uneven public awareness, poor public planning, and bureaucratic indifference or outright hostility. Requirements for proactive disclosure of information are often ignored. The necessary mechanisms for enforcing the new law are also strained by a growing number of complaints and appeals. Nonetheless, RTIA advocates demonstrate its transformative potential and continue to press energetically for more effective implementation. Public authorities and civil society organizations have developed a number of practical innovations that may be useful for other developing countries to adopt when considering similar laws.     

Questions About Policy Transparency

Book reviewed:
Neal Finkelstein, ed., Transparency in Public Policy: Great Britain and the United States .     

The English-Speaking Peoples and Their World Role Since 1900

Winston Churchill's classic the History of the English Speaking Peoples (in four volumes) closed as the nineteenth century came to an end. This article picks up the compelling narrative beginning in 1901. It details how the English-speaking world has triumphed by working together—whether facing the Kaiser's Germany, Axis aggression, or Soviet communism. Now these countries have come together once again in the struggle against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. What connects these countries remains far greater than what separates them.     

Does politics matter?

Nomination: Comparative politics matters by Geoffrey K. Roberts, p.99
Reflections: Does politics matter? Increasing complexity and renewed challenges by Frank Castles & Robert D. McKinlay, p.102     

‘Good soldiers are made,not born’⊥: the dangers of medicalizing ability in the military use of genetics

Advances in genetic and genomic science are of particular interest to the United States military. Responding to Maxwell J. Mehlman''s and Tracy Yeheng Li''s article Ethical, Legal, Social, and Policy Issues in the Use of Genomic Technology by the U.S. Military, this Commentary explores the social consequences of medicalizing what it means to be a good soldier. It begins by reviewing the well-documented consequences of medicalization in the contexts of the eugenics movement and modern genetic and genomic science. It then applies that analysis to the military use of genetics and genomics, focusing on the ways in which genetic or genomic accounts of military ability could entrench existing gender and racial disparities.     

Privacy,Data Retention and Domination: Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister for Communications

In Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister for Communications, the European Court of Justice found the EU Data Retention Directive, which required the retention of communications data for up to two years, to be incompatible with Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – the rights to privacy and to the protection of personal data. It is argued in this note that the decision ought to be taken as one that is concerned with the exercise of arbitrary power, a concern that is captured by the concept of domination.