Administrative Transparency and the Access to Information

Abstract

This article discusses the various forms and application ranges of the State secret throughout history, from its origins in classical political culture, to the evanescence of its intensity, when the right to information and the principles of good administration, advertising, transparency and democracy gain strength. In this scenario, in Brazil, the constitutional principle of transparency is highlighted, which transforms the notion of advertising, being no longer just an administrator option, to demand a public space in which the free movement of ideas and information starts to have potential to influence the scope and the action strategies of the State, providing certainty to State conducts and security to the administered. In the wake of this principle, comes the Access to Information Act, in order to print effectiveness in access to  administrative  information,  producing  intense  practical  effects  to  the  legal  and administrative relationship established between the Public Administration and administered and subjecting the power to control people, presenting a notorious identity with democracy. However, some points of this law provoked discussions regarding the possible conflict between individual and collective fundamental rights, as well as between the constitutional principles of transparency and publicity with the intimacy and privacy, as well as any collision with the infra-constitutional norms derived from the latter, as the confidentiality of financial data, bank secrecy and tax secrecy. The intention presented in this study is to establish the ownership of the reach of the Access to Information Act before the particular issue of disclosure in nominal compensation of state agents.