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Kant and Bentham on Publicity: Implications for Transparency and the Liberal Democratic Peace
Unformatted Document Text:  Kant and Bentham on Publicity: Implications for Transparency and the Liberal Democratic Peace James J. Marquardt Assistant Professor of Politics Lake Forest College Prepared for Delivery at the 102 nd Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 30 – September 3, 2006 Copyright by the American Political Science Association Panel 1-19 Moral Principle and International Relations Sunday, September 3, 2006, 10:15 a.m. Contact information: Lake Forest College 555 N. Sheridan Road, Box E-15 Lake Forest, Illinois 60035 Tele: 847.735.5126 e-mail: ## email not listed ## Abstract Transparency is the word of the moment in political life. Transparency in international relations is associated with the liberal democratic peace thesis. The conventional wisdom says that the openness of policymaking in liberal democracies helps these countries allay mutual suspicions and favorably resolve problems between them. Enlightenment politi-cal theory has a lot to say about “publicity,” but scholars have barely touched upon its po-tential contributions to international relations. This paper is a step in that direction. It considers the idea of publicity in the work of Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham. It observes that Kant’s understanding of publicity, which is an extension of his thinking about a separate peace among liberal states, has little in common with the contemporary literature on transparency in international relations. A better – but by no means perfect – reference point for contemporary scholarship is the work of Jeremy Bentham. Whereas for Kant nations are truthful and open because “international public right” demands it, for Bentham those who wield power are subject to “distrustful surveillance.” While both thinkers are Enlightenment champions of transparency, Bentham’s approach to advancing a more open world is more “realistic” because it recognizes publicity’s relationship to power and a mechanism to control it.

Authors: Marquardt, James.
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Kant and Bentham on Publicity:
Implications for Transparency and the Liberal Democratic Peace
James J. Marquardt
Assistant Professor of Politics
Lake Forest College
Prepared for Delivery at the
102
nd
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August 30 – September 3, 2006
Copyright by the American Political Science Association
Panel 1-19
Moral Principle and International Relations
Sunday, September 3, 2006, 10:15 a.m.
Contact information:
Lake Forest College
555 N. Sheridan Road, Box E-15
Lake Forest, Illinois 60035
Tele: 847.735.5126
e-mail: ## email not listed ##
Abstract
Transparency is the word of the moment in political life. Transparency in international
relations is associated with the liberal democratic peace thesis. The conventional wisdom
says that the openness of policymaking in liberal democracies helps these countries allay
mutual suspicions and favorably resolve problems between them. Enlightenment politi-
cal theory has a lot to say about “publicity,” but scholars have barely touched upon its po-
tential contributions to international relations. This paper is a step in that direction. It
considers the idea of publicity in the work of Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham. It
observes that Kant’s understanding of publicity, which is an extension of his thinking
about a separate peace among liberal states, has little in common with the contemporary
literature on transparency in international relations. A better – but by no means perfect –
reference point for contemporary scholarship is the work of Jeremy Bentham. Whereas
for Kant nations are truthful and open because “international public right” demands it, for
Bentham those who wield power are subject to “distrustful surveillance.” While both
thinkers are Enlightenment champions of transparency, Bentham’s approach to advancing
a more open world is more “realistic” because it recognizes publicity’s relationship to
power and a mechanism to control it.


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