Table Of ContentThe Politics of Lying
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The Politics of Lying
Implications for Democracy
Lionel Cliffe
Professor of Politics
Department of Politics
University of Leeds
Maureen Ramsay
Senior Lecturer in Political Theory
Department of Politics
University of Leeds
and
Dave Bartlett
Department of Politics
University of Leeds
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-40375-2 ISBN 978-0-230-59784-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230597846
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cliffe, Lionel
The politics of lying : implications for democracy / Lionel Cliffe and Maureen
Ramsay; with case studies by Dave Bartlett
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Official secrets—United States. 2. Official secrets—Great Britain.
3. Official secrets—United States—Case studies. 4. Official Secrets—Great
Britain—Case studies. 5. Deception—Political aspects—United States.
6. Deception—Political aspects—Great Britain. I. Ramsay, Maureen, 1948–
II. Bartlett, Dave, 1947– III. Title
JK468.S4 C58 2000
320.1'01—dc21
99–053561
Selection, editorial matter, Introduction and Conclusion ©Lionel Cliffe and Maureen Ramsay
2000
Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 10 ©Maureen Ramsay 2000
Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 ©Lionel Cliffe 2000
Chapters 8, 9 and 11 ©Dave Bartlett 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-71738-7
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written
permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P0LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained
forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
For Maxine, who always faced the truth
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Contents
Preface and an Introduction ix
Part I Justifying and Explaining Political Deception
in a Democracy
11 Justifications for Lying in Politics 3
Maureen Ramsay
12 Democratic Dirty Hands 27
Maureen Ramsay
13 Explanations: The Political Context 43
Maureen Ramsay
14 Explanations: Deception in the US Political System 56
Lionel Cliffe
15 Explanations: Secrecy and Deception in the
UK Political Context 80
Lionel Cliffe
Part II Case-Studies
16 The Iran–Contra Affairs 95
Lionel Cliffe
17 The ‘War’ on Drugs 109
Lionel Cliffe
18 The Scott Inquiry: Matrix Churchill and
the Arms to Iraq Affair 130
Dave Bartlett
19 The Pergau Dam Affair: Civil Aid and Arms Exports 153
Dave Bartlett
10 Shoot to kill 166
Maureen Ramsay
11 BSE: Mad Cows and Deregulation 188
Dave Bartlett
vii
viii Contents
Conclusions 207
Maureen Ramsay and Lionel Cliffe
Bibliography 217
Index 227
Preface and an Introduction
This book had its genesis in a course with a similar title taught by
Lionel Cliffe at the Department of Politics, University of Leeds. Its orig-
inal aim was to follow a workshop approach which would encourage
students to do their own investigations into a few of the more notori-
ous cases of government dissembling or deception in recent years. But
its popularity forced a widening of the net to excavate more cases for
students to work on. That exploration in turn gave rise to a research
project which involved a deepening as well as a widening of the inves-
tigations, as a whole hidden side of political life in English-speaking
countries was increasingly laid bare. Growing awareness of the subma-
rine parts of this iceberg prompted analytical questions of how such
incidents were to be explained. Much of this volume is given over to an
analysis of some of these notorious cases on both sides of the Atlantic.
Each case-study covers familiar ground in the course of attempting to
‘nail’ the lie by comparing initial official announcements with what is
later revealed. But the significance of each case for our understanding
of politics and the kinds of calculations that are made by governmental
actors that might ‘explain’ the deception are also probed.
The more cases that are brought out, the more one realises that what
also has to be explained is the seeming pervasiveness of the phenom-
ena. If they were merely occasional if spectacular exceptions to normal
democratic and open practices, then the ‘exceptional’ circumstances
surrounding a particular case would be central to any explanation –
although, even in that light, comparative analysis might allow isola-
tion of the types of circumstances which are likely to give rise to gov-
ernment lying. However, as more cases come to light, the possibility
that they are the common stuff of ‘democratic’ politics, at least in
some countries, in turn poses the need for a different level of explana-
tion. Are such practices of deception systemic? And to the extent they
are, is that to be understood in terms of the character of certain politi-
cal leaders that give a regime its character or of politicians and power-
holders generally, or of more structural characteristics or contexts of
particular political systems? Or is the phenomenon to be explained as a
more fundamental element in the conduct of politics in contemporary
democratic polities?
ix
