Praise for The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency

“Dr. Snider’s The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency offers a cogent explication of the inherent conflict between legislators and legislative data, dismantling the mechanisms of legislative information to expose the conflicting incentives often at their core. This argument has assisted me in advocating for bulk access to legislative data, illuminating the need for access to legislators’ roll call votes, as well as the widespread failings of legislatures to make this information available.”

—  John Wonderlich, Policy Director, Sunlight Foundation

It’s a fascinating, terrific piece of writing.  I liked the conceptual framework you’ve set up: the reasons given by legislatures for not making roll call data available, the expanded speech solution via a Shadow Legislature enabled by new technology, fat and thin private legislative media and their value, the cycle of influence supported by fat and thin private legislative media, and the impact on journalists of reduced information costs. Thanks for writing this.

—  Greg Elin, Chief Data Architect, Sunlight Foundation

“Great article!”

—  Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute