What is it about?
This is the introduction to a special issue of Histoire & Mesure which published the proceedings of an international conference held in Reading in 2015 and funded by the ESRC on the history of fiscal transparency in early-modern Europe.
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Why is it important?
The 2008 financial crisis has demonstrated the importance of transparency for institutional stability. Yet, little is known about the history of transparency which is a key element of trust in institutions and the cornerstone of modern democracies.
Perspectives
Looking at the history of transparency and taking a comparative European view has been very exciting. There are still many things to be said about how, in practice, European states moved from secrecy to external controls, especially when working with fledgling representative institutions. Also, it is important to realise that transparency may be ethically good but not always a panacea, or at the very least, can be a cause of instability.
Joel Felix
University of Reading
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Paths to Fiscal Transparency, Histoire & Mesure, December 2015, OpenEdition,
DOI: 10.4000/histoiremesure.5203.
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