I've written a whole thesis connected to this matter actually.
The deterioration of the state records repositories in the US is actually closely connected to these types of problems. Not only did bureaucracy get more eroded by randomness in execution (due to taking pieces of a natural chain out of circulation in response to monetary cuts), but the very authority of archives and records repositories was and is undermined.
If you go back just a couple of decades, state archives in the US could actually call audits on state agencies if they broke FOI rules or archival rules, and they had liaisons between themselves and agencies, so that they could check that things went as they should with document management issues. Archives also had more funds to run their own records programs as well as liaisons with the courts. Over the decades this whole system has gradually fallen apart, and what you see now is part of the result. Records laws aren't followed and there is no one or nothing that can check it effectively.
People forget so fast, but agencies did *not* used to go unchecked. Today people hardly know what archives or records management and its laws are, not even the people working *at* various state agencies.
This largely started happening during a libertarian push in many states during the late 80's or early 90's to cut state "bureaucracy" and spending. The results from so called Tabors and "Tels" were pretty swift. Most citizens don't even know what hit them, they just feel that "bureaucracy" and "rights" aren't met, and complain even more about it without knowing that in many cases they voted for these changes themselves.
yeah, I could rant on. There is history, written testimonies and interviews about it, I have it all on my shelf.
2 cents from an archivist and former state employee
The deterioration of the state records repositories in the US is actually closely connected to these types of problems. Not only did bureaucracy get more eroded by randomness in execution (due to taking pieces of a natural chain out of circulation in response to monetary cuts), but the very authority of archives and records repositories was and is undermined.
If you go back just a couple of decades, state archives in the US could actually call audits on state agencies if they broke FOI rules or archival rules, and they had liaisons between themselves and agencies, so that they could check that things went as they should with document management issues. Archives also had more funds to run their own records programs as well as liaisons with the courts.
Over the decades this whole system has gradually fallen apart, and what you see now is part of the result. Records laws aren't followed and there is no one or nothing that can check it effectively.
People forget so fast, but agencies did *not* used to go unchecked. Today people hardly know what archives or records management and its laws are, not even the people working *at* various state agencies.
This largely started happening during a libertarian push in many states during the late 80's or early 90's to cut state "bureaucracy" and spending. The results from so called Tabors and "Tels" were pretty swift. Most citizens don't even know what hit them, they just feel that "bureaucracy" and "rights" aren't met, and complain even more about it without knowing that in many cases they voted for these changes themselves.
yeah, I could rant on. There is history, written testimonies and interviews about it, I have it all on my shelf.