PPA 301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Photocopier, Fair Deal

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Politics and Public Administration
• Course: PPA 301
• Professor: Jacquie Chic

Document Summary

Ppa module 11 - freedom of information, procedural fairness and democracy. There is nothing more foundational to democracy than being fully and fairly informed of what governments know and are doing with the information in their possession. democracy is about meaningful public participation and involvement in governmental decision making. If you have little or none of the information government has at its disposal, there is a power imbalance in which governing elites keep the upper hand. The public may think it"s participating, but in this dynamic, those outside of government will always be at a disadvantage. This is a mechanism by which governments can maintain control and power. And of course, you can"t know how much you don"t know if you can"t access the information. But information (online) can be shaped and constructed by those who make it available in ways that serve a particular agenda.