|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 21, 2006
CONTACT: Eric Landau
(202) 204-3624
ACADEMY HONORS BLACKED OUT: GOVERNMENT SECRECY IN THE INFORMATION AGE WITH 2006 LOUIS BROWNLOW BOOK AWARD
Washington, DC — December 21, 2006 — The National Academy of Public Administration is pleased to announce the winner of the 2006 Louis Brownlow Book Award, the top literary prize in public administration literature. This year’s winner is Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age, by Alasdair Roberts. Roberts received the award at the Academy’ annual meeting in Washington, DC.
The winner was selected from a field of over a dozen nominated publications.
Blacked Out examines how the government collects, shares and manages information about its citizens. Roberts questions how leaders can ensure transparency and accountability, and argues that people need to be willing to act to make information publicly available. He suggests that Americans are disengaged, and that the challenge lies with them to ensure that information is used as a disclosure and accountability tool.
“The book’s central conversation is about a tool – the right to government information – which is necessary to hold an increasingly complex, educated and diverse society together,” said Norman J. Johnson, chair of the 2006 Brownlow Award Committee. “This fundamental management and policy question demands attention, and Roberts speaks directly to it, earning the Committee’s praise and award.”
Roberts is an Associate Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Blacked Out is published by Cambridge University Press.
Since 1968, the Academy has recognized outstanding contributions to public administration literature through presentation of the Brownlow Book Award. It is made to an author who provides new insights, fresh analysis and original ideas that contribute to the understanding of the role of governmental institutions and how they can most effectively serve the public.
Johnson, Professor at Florida A&M University’s School of Business and Industry, was joined on the award committee by James Banovetz, Professor Emeritus of Northern Illinois University’s Center for Government Studies and Nanette Blandin, President of the Nexus Institute.
* * *
|
