Andrew Walker, Head of the House of Commons Fees Office, made headlines when he was quoted during the recent Parliamentary expense account scandal as having said that "transparency will damage democracy." That he did is indicative of the assumption that transparency in government and democracy go hand in hand. Perhaps most obviously symbolized by the glass dome on the new German Reichstag building, this assumption has become all the stronger with the proliferation of various communications technologies, which have putatively opened up the processes of government to observation and thus control by citizens. Bearing in mind Machiavelli's assertion to his eponymous prince that people judge by what they see, and that what they see is what the successful prince wants them to see, I will question this assumption on several levels. While some argue that transparency is in tension with governmental efficiency and seek to limit it, I will ask whether transparency is either achievable or desirable for democracy and suggest that the illusion of transparency offered by the internet and communication technologies generally may be more dangerous to democracy than is the presumption of political power's opacity
