Which government officials leak unauthorized information to the press in Washington?

Alaimo, Kara

doi:10.1002/pa.1556

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…Traditionally, leaks were thought to come mainly from senior officials, those with good access to information, political interests of their own, and regular contact with outside actors, for example in Israel (Reich 2008) or the US (Pozen 2013: 529-30). Qualitative studies indicate, however, that regular civil servants in the USA leak as much as political appointees (Alaimo 2016), while journalists in Australia report their preference for leaks from the middle ranks because information from these levels is further removed from the political spin but more interesting than technical information from lower levels (Flynn 2006). Recently, there seems to be a trend that leaks are increasingly coming from less senior officials.…”

Section: Leaking and Leak Prevention In Western Public Administrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have studied leaking of this more common type in various Western political systems, including in the USA (Alaimo 2016;Fenster 2014;Pozen 2013;Prémon 2010Prémon , 2012, the Netherlands (Bovens et al 1995;de Jong and de Vries 2007), Israel (Reich 2008), Australia (Flynn 2006(Flynn , 2011, Germany (Spörer-Wagner and Marcinkowski 2010), and the European Union (Herrmann 2015;Patz 2014Patz , 2016. A key finding has been that, despite the frequency of leaks, public administrations most of the time do not prioritise leak prevention (Bovens et al 1995;Fenster 2014: 316;Pozen 2013: 515).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Leaking, leak prevention, and decoupling in public administrations: the case of the European Commission

Patz¹

2017

West European Politics

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The European Commission is frequently faced with leaks, much like other public administrations in Western democracies. While executive leaders often criticise the practice of leaking as an unwanted breach of confidentiality and secrecy, leak prevention is usually not taken seriously compared to the scale of the phenomenon. This article discusses leaking and leak prevention more broadly and analyses the efforts of the European Commission to prevent leaks. It finds that leaking and leak prevention were regularly discussed at the highest level of the EU's executive between 2006 and 2015. However, few Commission officials have been sanctioned for leaking in that period, and mostly for leaks that appear unrelated to the substance of those discussed at the political level. This mismatch is explained by a decoupling of talk and action regarding leak prevention, allowing the European Commission and other public administrations to manage inconsistencies in competing internal and external demands for openness and confidentiality.

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Section: Leaking and Leak Prevention In Western Public Administrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaking, leak prevention, and decoupling in public administrations: the case of the European Commission

Patz¹

2017

West European Politics

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“…Researchers have studied leaking of this more common type in various Western political systems, including in the USA (Prémon 2010(Prémon , 2012Pozen 2013;Alaimo 2016), the Netherlands (Bovens, Geveke and de Vries 1995;de Jong and de Vries 2007), Israel (Reich 2008), Australia (Flynn 2006(Flynn , 2011, Germany (Spörer-Wagner and Marcinkowski 2010), and the European Union (Patz 2014(Patz , 2016Herrmann 2015). Disciplinary perspectives on leaking range from law (Pozen 2013) and journalism studies (Reich 2008;Reich andBarnov 2016, Flynn 2006) to political science and public administration (Bovens, Geveke and de Vries 1995;de Jong and de Vries 2007;Spörer-Wagner and Marcinkowski 2010;Prémon 2012;Patz 2014), although many contributions on political leaking go across disciplinary boundaries.…”

Section: "By Virtue Of Their Unvarnished Nature Leaks Have Evolved Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technology and the ability of junior officials to more easily access and copy politically sensitive or even confidential information could be one of the drivers of this change (Reich and Barnoy 2016). Qualitative studies indicate, however, that political appointees leaks as much as regular civil servants (Alaimo 2016). That being said, journalists report to prefer leaks from the middle ranks because these are seen to add to the political spin coming from higher levels and political appointees (Flynn 2006).…”

Section: Leaking and Bureaucratic Politics: Theoretical And Empiricalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bureaucratic Politics and the Prevention of Leaks in the European Commission

Patz¹

2017

SSRN Journal

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The European Commission, much like other executives and public administrations in Western Democracies, is frequently faced with leaks. Even though executive leaders often criticize this practice as unwanted breach of confidentiality and secrecy, research has shown that leak prevention is usually not taken seriously beyond public complaints. This paper analyses the phenomenon of leaking in the European Commission and the efforts the Commission makes to prevent leaks from its own ranks. It finds that leaking and leak prevention are regularly discussed at the highest level of the Commission. However, a survey with leak recipients suggest that leaks seem so widely distributed and frequent at various stages of internal decision-making that the existing prevention efforts seem ineffective.Analysing the rules and practices of leak prevention, the paper shows that, while there are anti-leak rules in place, there have been very few cases in which Commission leakers have been administratively sanctioned. The explanation for these observations builds on the argument that leaking is part of regular bureaucratic politics and that leak prevention therefore is not meant to be effective, except for a few important cases.

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“…Researchers have studied leaking of this more common type in various Western political systems, including in the USA (Prémon 2010(Prémon , 2012Pozen 2013;Alaimo 2016), the Netherlands (Bovens, Geveke and de Vries 1995;de Jong and de Vries 2007), Israel (Reich 2008), Australia (Flynn 2006(Flynn , 2011, Germany (Spörer-Wagner and Marcinkowski 2010), and the European Union (Patz 2014(Patz , 2016Herrmann 2015). Disciplinary perspectives on leaking range from law (Pozen 2013) and journalism studies (Reich 2008;Reich andBarnov 2016, Flynn 2006) to political science and public administration (Bovens, The key question for this paper is why the prevention of regular leaks by public administrations seems so unsuccessful.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bureaucratic politics and the prevention of leaks in the European Commission

Patz¹

2017

Preprint

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The European Commission, much like other executives and public administrations in Western Democracies, is frequently faced with leaks. Even though executive leaders often criticize this practice as unwanted breach of confidentiality and secrecy, research has shown that leak prevention is usually not taken seriously beyond public complaints. This paper analyses the phenomenon of leaking in the European Commission and the efforts the Commission makes to prevent leaks from its own ranks. It finds that leaking and leak prevention are regularly discussed at the highest level of the Commission. However, a survey with leak recipients suggest that leaks seem so widely distributed and frequent at various stages of internal decision-making that the existing prevention efforts seem ineffective. Analysing the rules and practices of leak prevention, the paper shows that, while there are anti-leak rules in place, there have been very few cases in which Commission leakers have been administratively sanctioned. The explanation for these observations builds on the argument that leaking is part of regular bureaucratic politics and that leak prevention therefore is not meant to be effective, except for a few important cases.

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Which government officials leak unauthorized information to the press in Washington?

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

Leaking, leak prevention, and decoupling in public administrations: the case of the European Commission

Leaking, leak prevention, and decoupling in public administrations: the case of the European Commission

Bureaucratic Politics and the Prevention of Leaks in the European Commission

Bureaucratic politics and the prevention of leaks in the European Commission

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