The Rise of the Right to Know


Book Description

The American founders did not endorse a citizen’s right to know. More openness in government, more frankness in a doctor’s communication with patients, more disclosure in a food manufacturer’s package labeling, and more public notice of actions that might damage the environment emerged in our own time. As Michael Schudson shows in The Rise of the Right to Know, modern transparency dates to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s—well before the Internet—as reform-oriented politicians, journalists, watchdog groups, and social movements won new leverage. At the same time, the rapid growth of higher education after 1945, together with its expansive ethos of inquiry and criticism, fostered both insight and oversight as public values. “One of the many strengths of The Rise of the Right To Know is its insistent emphasis on culture and its interaction with law...What Schudson shows is that enforceable access to official information creates a momentum towards a better use of what is disclosed and a refinement of how disclosure is best done.” —George Brock, Times Literary Supplement “This book is a reminder that the right to know is not an automatic right. It was hard-won, and fought for by many unknown political soldiers.” —Monica Horten, LSE Review of Books




Your Right To Know


Book Description

Have you ever wanted to force open the secretive doors of government? This book provides all the tools you need. With a new foreword by Ian Hislop, it's also fully updated to include...-- New chapters on Scotland and the law in practice-- Tips for digging out information and new template letters-- An expanded and updated directory-- Examples of case law that you can use in your quest for answers-- An expanded Business chapter to help you get contracts, tenders and performance evaluations




Citizenship as Foundation of Rights


Book Description

Citizenship as Foundation of Rights explains what it means to have citizen rights and how national identification requirements undermine them.




Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens


Book Description




Citizens' Rights and the Right to Be a Citizen


Book Description

Ernst Hirsch Ballin discusses the significance of citizens’ rights against the backdrop of ongoing migration and urbanization in the beginning of the 21st century. The traditional view that each state has the sovereign power to give or withhold citizenship, puts the full enjoyment of human rights at risk whenever exclusion is based on differences in nationality. Citizens’ rights are the essential connecting link between human rights and life in a democratic society. Citizens have an individual right, as a citizen, to take part in the democratic process and in the structures of solidarity of the state where they are effectively at home. By recognizing everyone’s right to the citizenship of the state in which they can make these rights a reality, citizens’ rights can bridge the gap between the universality of human rights and the changing political and social settings of people’s lives. Limits on dual citizenship are counterproductive, European citizenship paves the way for transnational citizenship. "Hirsch Ballin's book is very important for academics and practitioners in the field of citizenship. It embraces the complexity of citizenship with all its academic, practical and emotional meanings. Hopefully, Hirsch Ballin's work can serve as a compass for new directions in immigration and naturalisation debates." Katja Swider in: Journal of European Integration, Vol 38. nr. 4, 2016




I, Citizen


Book Description

This is a story of hope, but also of peril. It began when our nation’s polarized political class started conscripting everyday citizens into its culture war. From their commanding heights in political parties, media, academia, and government, these partisans have attacked one another for years, but increasingly they’ve convinced everyday Americans to join the fray. Why should we feel such animosity toward our fellow citizens, our neighbors, even our own kin? Because we’ve fallen for the false narrative, eagerly promoted by pundits on the Left and the Right, that citizens who happen to vote Democrat or Republican are enthusiastic supporters of Team Blue or Team Red. Aside from a minority of party activists and partisans, however, most voters are simply trying to choose the lesser of two evils. The real threat to our union isn’t Red vs. Blue America, it’s the quiet collusion within our nation’s political class to take away that most American of freedoms: our right to self-governance. Even as partisans work overtime to divide Americans against one another, they’ve erected a system under which we ordinary citizens don’t have a voice in the decisions that affect our lives. From foreign wars to how local libraries are run, authority no longer resides with We the People, but amongst unaccountable officials. The political class has stolen our birthright and set us at one another’s throats. This is the story of how that happened and what we can do about it. America stands at a precipice, but there’s still time to reclaim authority over our lives and communities.




Overview of the Privacy Act of 1974


Book Description

The "Overview of the Privacy Act of 1974," prepared by the Department of Justice's Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties (OPCL), is a discussion of the Privacy Act's disclosure prohibition, its access and amendment provisions, and its agency recordkeeping requirements. Tracking the provisions of the Act itself, the Overview provides reference to, and legal analysis of, court decisions interpreting the Act's provisions.




A Citizen's Right to Know


Book Description

In 1986, after the disastrous accident at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act. Under this act, many business facilities became subject to new reporting requirements with respect to the presence of hazardous substances. Hadden, an associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, conducted surveys relating to this act.




The Right to Privacy


Book Description

Reproduction of the original: The Right to Privacy by Samuel D. Warren, Louis D. Brandeis




Learn about the United States


Book Description

"Learn About the United States" is intended to help permanent residents gain a deeper understanding of U.S. history and government as they prepare to become citizens. The product presents 96 short lessons, based on the sample questions from which the civics portion of the naturalization test is drawn. An audio CD that allows students to listen to the questions, answers, and civics lessons read aloud is also included. For immigrants preparing to naturalize, the chance to learn more about the history and government of the United States will make their journey toward citizenship a more meaningful one.