History of Transparency in Politics and Society

Today, the demand for transparency is omnipresent. In particular, transparency is considered a prerequisite for good governance, for political participation and democracy. On closer inspection, however, transparency proves to be ambivalent. For complete transparency has not yet been achieved anywhere. Moreover, measures to increase transparency can have the opposite effect and stir up mistrust. Historians are just beginning to discover this topic. The volume assembles contributions covering European history since the 19th century. The contributors focus on political and cultural history, but include also economic and media history as well as the history of ideas. They analyse publicly debated demands and efforts for transparency, conceived as the access to information or ist disclosure.



Dr. Jens Ivo Engels ist Professor für Neuere und Neueste Geschichte an der Technischen Universität Darmstadt. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen auf der Geschichte der Korruption, Umweltgeschichte, Geschichte von Infrastrukturen sowie Monarchie.



Transparency, conceived as the demand for access to information, has been advocated since the 19th century. The political motives behind these demands are various and include participation as well as authoritarian objectives.