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In my International Relations class, one of the conditions of a fully working and stable democracy was transparency. Transparency: the ability to see clearly and coherently the inner workings of the governmental system. While in International Relations, transparency was normally addressed in an international sense, where disputes did not occur because there was no chance for governmental duplicity (this is a drastic oversimplification but does not pertain to the discussion), it was generally agreed that transparency is also required internally.
I think that one major problem in regards to this current adminstration is that regardless of the truth of various circumstances (OIF, for example), many of the government's statements and actions are popularly regarded as duplicitous. As such, while in reality this government has the same ability to misinform and decieve as many of its predecessors (if not all), it seems that its actions are seen as dubious because it is percieved to not have a 'clean record' when it comes to telling the truth.
Lies, half-truths, and poorly stated truths, all exacerbated by the press, have come back to bite this administration in the rear, in my opinion.
Solid
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