Freedom of Information in the Developing World
Demand, Compliance and Democratic Behaviours
Book
Hardback
200 pages
978-1-84334-199-4 (ISBN)
Description
Rather than simply summarizing the state of play in African countries and elsewhere, this book attempts to identify and to make explicit the assumptions about the citizen's relationship to the state that lie beneath Freedom of Information (FoI) discourse, and then to test them against the reality of the pervasive politics of patronage that characterize much of African practice. The two sides of the equation are the willingness and capacity of a state bureaucracy to comply with legislation, and the growth of a demand for accountability on the part of the citizenry. This second aspect is complicated in many countries by a discourse/language problem. Finally, the book asks whether, for tactical and strategic reasons, FoI should be treated as a technical 'delivery problem' or linked to wider human rights and transparency issues. The conclusion discusses whether FoI really helps to build democratic practices, or whether it is better considered to be an outcome of them.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
OXford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Elsevier Science & Technology
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84334-199-4 (9781843341994)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Colin Darch | Peter G. Underwood
Freedom of Information and the Developing World
The Citizen, the State and Models of Openness
E-Book
12/2009
Chandos Publishing (Oxford) Ltd
€65.95
Available for download
Persons
Dr Darch is based at the African Studies Library at the University of Cape Town as a researcher, and his current research interests include the role of intellectual property laws in relation to development issues in less developed countries, the functioning of such research quality controls as peer review in the LIS environment, and FoI issues in Africa. Professor Peter G. Underwood is Director of the University of Cape Town Centre for Information Literacy and Professor of Librarianship at the University of Cape Town, having occupied this position since 1992. Prior to this he spent twenty years as Lecturer in the Department of Information and Library Studies, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He is the author of many books and articles.
Content
Introduction: the discourse of FoI - the Lippmann critique of the 'Omnicompetent Citizen'; the role of information in modernisation and development discourse; FoI comes to Africa and the developing world; the relationship between demand and compliance; a typology of state information: the personal and the political; Models of compliance and their application in the developing world - the Roberts-Snell model of administrative compliance; Roberts-Snell applied to African situations; the problem of capacity; FoI as legislative act or change management process; Constraints of demand: the problem of discourse - Bourdieu's theory of political discourse; polysemic discourse and language in African countries; the language of legitimacy and exoglossia; The problem of FoI and human rights discourse - is FoI a real human rights issue?; relationship between FoI and transparency/democratic governance; Conclusion - is FoI a creation or the creator of democratic practice?