Self-study
Any government practice that might facilitate the abuse of power should not be undertaken except in cases in which there is a compelling reason to do so. ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████████ ████████ ███ ██ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ██████
Summary
For any government practice that might facilitate abuse of power:
If there’s no compelling reason to do the practice → don’t do it
Keeping government secrets is a practice that might facilitate abuse of power.
Concealing the keeping of a government secret is another kind of practice that might facilitate abuse of power.
Very Strongly Supported Conclusions
If there’s no compelling reason to keep a government secret, the government should not keep the secret.
If there’s no compelling reason to conceal the fact that the government is keeping a secret, the government should not conceal the fact they are keeping a secret.
Note that keeping a secret and concealing the keeping of a secret are two different actions.
19.
Which one of the following ███ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████
a
In most cases ██ █████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███
We know that “too often” the government keeps secrets for reasons that aren’t compelling. And in these cases, the government is unjustified in keeping secrets. But we don’t know that “too often” is “most cases.” “Too often” doesn’t have to mean over half.
b
In those cases ██ █████ ██████████ █████████ ████ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████
Keeping a secret is a practice that might facilitate abuse of power. Even if it’s justified, it still might facilitate abuse of power. It might just be a justified case of doing something that facilitates abuse of power.
c
A government official ███ ███████████ █████ █ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██████ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██ ███
Must be true. We know concealing the existence of a secret might facilitate abuse of power. So if there’s no compelling reason to conceal the keeping of a secret, one should not conceal the keeping of a secret, regardless of whether the keeping of a secret is justified.
d
Government officials who ███████ ███████████ ███████ █ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ██ ██████
We know concealing a secret without a compelling reason to do so is unjustified. But this doesn’t imply that concealing the secret is an abuse of power. We do not know from the stimulus what constitutes an abuse of power.
e
Government officials should ████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████
We don’t have any support for conditioning the keeping of a secret on not making it easier to abuse power. In fact, if there’s a compelling reason to keep a secret, then that might be something that’s justified even if it facilitates abuse of power.