In 1976, the federal Government in the Sunshine Act was passed, part of a series of acts that sought to bring into the open the business of lawmaking. The thinking was that, as the famous saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and forcing transparency upon government meetings on key pieces of legislation would curtail the ills of back room dealing. Images of well-heeled men sitting in large, brown leather chairs, the room thick with cigar smoke, filled the minds of those who pushed for those sunshine laws. They wanted more government transparency in order to keep the government accountable to the people. In practice, this came to mean lobbyists and key donors.
It should be remembered that the push for these laws occurred against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and simmering radicalism of the late 1960’s and early ’70’s. Trust in the government was at an all-time low, only to be superseded by today’s dismal approval ratings. Make the government more open, more accountable the mantra went, and the people can vote more intelligently with a view towards their candidate’s public voting record. These laws would be an echo of Federalist 49, in which James Madison wrote, “Government is and should be the servant of the people, and it should be fully accountable to them for the actions it supposedly takes on their behalf."
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