Power and Influence in the Making of British Budgets

On 1 March 1997, a federal commission on government secrecy issued its findings which, among other things, stated that ‘the government kept too much secret for too long and blamed what it termed “a culture of secrecy” for fostering and perpetuating conspiracy theories’.1 The commission, chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Democrat — New York) recommended that Congress pass a law that would make it easier for citizens to have full access to government records and proceedings, and called for the creation and financing of a National Declassification Center to oversee the new openness.