Policy laundering
Policy laundering is the disguising of the origins of political decisions, laws, or international treaties.[1] The term is based on the similar money laundering.
Hiding responsibility for a policy or decision
One common method for policy laundering is the use of international treaties which are formulated in secrecy. Afterwards it is not possible to find out who advocated for which part of the treaty. Each person can claim that it was not them who demanded a certain paragraph but that they had to agree to the overall "compromise".[citation needed]
Examples that could be considered as "policy laundering" are WIPO[2][3] or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).[4]
Circumventing the regular approval process
Yet another manifestation of policy laundering is to implement legal policy which a subset of legislators desire but would normally not be able to obtain approval through regular means.
The American Civil Liberties Union argue[5][6][7] that policy laundering has become common political practice in areas related to terrorism and the erosion of civil liberties.
See also
International law:
Political communication:
Policy making:
- Joint decision trap
- Lobbyism
- Participation (decision making)
- Political corruption
- Theories of political behaviour
References
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hosein, Ian (2004). "The Sources of Laws: Policy Dynamics in a Digital and Terrorized World". The Information Society. 20 (3): 187–199. doi:10.1080/01972240490456854. S2CID 43612133.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Herman, Bill D. & Oscar H. Gandy, Jr. (2006). "Catch 1201: A Legislative History and Content Analysis of the DMCA Exemption Proceedings". Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. SSRN 844544.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Yu, Peter K., The Political Economy of Data Protection, Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 83, 2008
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Geist, Michael (9 June 2008). "Government Should Lift Veil on ACTA Secrecy". Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ The Policy Laundering Project
- ^ ACLU's Stop Policy Laundering Project
- ^ Barry Steinhardt (ACLU) "The Problem of Policy Laundering"
