“History holds important lessons for the new administration of Mayor Brandon Johnson. It is inevitable that situations will arise in which he and his team will have strong incentives to restrict access to public information to maintain an official narrative that serves their purposes. That is why it is essential for him to make explicit transparency commitments at the beginning of his tenure.
We should be realistic about this. Power imposes itself through narrative, and information control is a necessary tool for that purpose. We cannot design our institutions with the expectation of exceptionally enlightened leadership. We must design them to withstand limited, fallible, self-protective human beings like ourselves.”
Jamie Kalven writes in the Chicago Tribune Opinions Column on the need for transparency from the City of Chicago and three of the priority items Mayor Johnson can engage to maintain his campaign commitment to transparency. Read the full article here.