Without public trust in authorities, society doesn’t work properly.

The argument for requiring full and fair public explanation by authorities on how they are carrying out their responsibilities is straight-forward: If authorities are required to explain publicly, fully and fairly, before taking their decisions:

1. what specific outcomes they intend to bring about, for whom, and why,
2. the performance standards they intend for themselves and those they oversee, 

their decision-making will be fairer for all those who would be significantly affected by their decisions.

This is because authorities’ explanations required before the fact can be publicly evaluated by knowledgeable organizations for their fairness and completeness. This public assessment will lead to greater or lower public trust in the authority. Thus the requirement for public explanation produces a self-regulating influence that increases decision fairness and raises valid citizen trust in the authority.

But it will take citizens themselves to bring about public accounting to a standard of explanation that citizens are entitled to see met. Since the obligation of authorities to give full and fair public accountings is unassailable, there is no barrier to citizens forming accountability groups on important issues and holding their elected representatives publicly to account for making the explanation requirement the law.

Only with this knowledge can citizens sensibly act to commend, alter or halt what the directing minds of the authority intend, yet citizens have not yet required it. Obtaining this information and validating the authority’s assertions is called holding to account. It is simply the application of the precautionary principle.

The logical extension of the principle is that if authorities refuse to account publicly, fully and fairly, they should not be trusted. This applies in both democracies and dictatorships. On the other hand, authorities that “default to the public good” can show that they do so through the quality of their public explanations. For example, published financial statements, which are usually the only public accounting required by current law, are only a part of the information needed and are not explanation before the fact,

Simply hoping or writing “urging” letters to officials rather than holding them fairly and relentlessly to account will not assure fairness in society.