Please do not remove this page Privatization of government information as primitive accumulation Kunkel, Rebecca https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/discovery/delivery/01RUT_INST:ResearchRepository/12643380980004646?l#13643492750004646 Kunkel, R. (2020). Privatization of government information as primitive accumulation. Journal of Radical Librarianship, 6, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.7282/t3-ejh3-2r26 This work is protected by copyright. You are free to use this resource, with proper attribution, for research and educational purposes. Other uses, such as reproduction or publication, may require the permission of the copyright holder. Downloaded On 2021/09/23 10:15:25 -0400 Privatization of Government Information as Primitive Accumulation Rebecca Kunkel ABSTRACT: This essay examines privatization of government publishing through the lens of capital accumulation by dispossession, an updated and expanded version of Marx’s account of primitive accumulation. It argues that the program of privatizing government information dissemination activities, which began as part of the Reagan administration’s pursuit of neoliberal policies, continues today albeit in altered form due to the advent of electronic publishing. Keywords: Primitive accumulation, accumulation by dispossession, privatization, government publishing, government information, Federal Depository Library Program This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Journal of Radical Librarianship, Vol. 6 (2020) pp. 1–15. Published 6 June 2020. During his presidency, Ronald Reagan conducted an aggressive campaign to transfer many of the functions of government to private business, including the publication of government documents. Although discussions of privatization have largely dropped out of the library literature following the withdrawal of some of the Reagan era’s most controversial policies, I argue that privatization of government information continues to be a pressing issue to the current day. One reason that it is largely overlooked in the contemporary literature is the tendency to view privatization as an issue only when it implicates the value of access to information. In lieu of this narrow focus on information access and restriction, this essay will present an analysis of privatized information that places it in the broader context of capital accumulation. It does so by articulating the privatization of government information as an instance of accumulation by dispossession, a contemporary adaptation of Marx’s account of primitive accumulation introduced by geographer David Harvey. Taken in this context, it is possible to formulate a broader critique of recent government policy directed at transferring to capital the ability to control the flow of information in order to serve the goal of accumulation, even though restriction of public access to information is only one possible outcome of this process. Government Information as Commodity Ronald Reagan and his policy advisors were deeply impressed by the idea derived from the work of Harvard sociologist Daniel Bell that information was “a commodity capable of fueling a dramatic economic recovery in America.”1 The passage of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 19802 and the creation of the Office of Administrative and Regulatory Affairs gave the executive branch Office of Management and Budget (OMB) power to put this idea into practice by setting information policy.3 In its articulation of information policy, the information-as-commodity view was an integral part of the administration’s ideological commitment to a more general program of empowering capital by easing regulatory restrictions, suppressing the power of organized labor and, of particular relevance here, transferring various government functions to the private sector.4 1 MICHAEL A. HARRIS, STAN A. HANNAH, AND PAMELA C. HARRIS, INTO THE FUTURE: THE FOUNDATION OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN THE POST-INDUSTRIAL ERA 61 (2nd ed. 1998). 2 Pub. L. No. 96-511, 94 Stat. 21812 (1980). 3 Henry T. Blanke, Libraries and the Commercialization of Information: Towards a Critical Discourse of Librarianship 2 PROGRESSIVE LIBRARIAN 9, 11 (1991), http://www.progressivelibrariansguild.org/PL/PL02/009.pdf. 4 See Harris, Hannah & Harris, supra note 1, at 61. Journal of Radical Librarianship, Vol. 6 (2020) pp. 1–15. 1 Supporters of privatization often invoked populist rhetoric, claiming on behalf of “the American people” that federal programs were too intrusive, inefficient, and expensive;5 and that transferring the operation of a whole range of government activities to business would both reduce costs of and enhance their effectiveness.6 The mechanisms through which the agenda could be furthered were diverse, but could be accomplished through a combination of measures including the use of vouchers, private sector outsourcing, and sales of public assets.7 Where government publishing was concerned, the goal of privatization was furthered by establishing strong preferences for reducing the overall number of government publications and for using private sector publishers whenever possible. An April 1981 Presidential moratorium on the production of any new audiovisual aids and publications set the tone for the new administration’s information policy.8 A series of OMB policies followed, requiring agency heads to carefully review their information dissemination practices with a particular eye towards information services that might be either eliminated or better provided by the private sector.9 In addition, agencies were encouraged through a combination of budget cuts and OMB policy to raise or institute fees for publications.10 OMB circular A-130 is widely regarded as the fullest statement of these principles. Reiterating the view that information is a commodity, it established a requirement that agencies review their information collection and dissemination practices to avoid publishing information already being disseminated by another organization, public or private; that agencies institute “cost recovery” or user charges for those publications; and that agencies place “maximum feasible reliance” on the private sector for their publication needs.11 In this atmosphere, the activities of the Government Printing Office (GPO, now Government Publishing Office) were newly politicized. Reagan found a sympathetic appointee to head the GPO in Danford Sawyer, his nominee for Public Printer. Sawyer was the owner of a Florida advertising agency and publishing company with no government experience who professed 5 DAVID F. LINOWES, PRIVATIZATION: TOWARD MORE EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT: REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT’S COMMISSION ON PRIVATIZATION, xi (1988), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt? id=mdp.39015017633325&view=1up&seq=5. 6 Id. at 1. 7 Id. at 1-2. 8 Statement on Federal Audiovisual Aids and Publications, Jan. 20 to Dec. 31, 1981 PUB. PAPERS 364 (April 20, 1981), https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PPP-1981-book1. 9 Id. 10 Id. at 3. 11 50 Fed. Reg. 52,736 (Dec. 24, 1985), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1985-12-24/pdf/FR- 1985-12-24.pdf#page=1. Journal of Radical Librarianship, Vol. 6 (2020) pp. 1–15. 2 an interest in increasing the “efficiency” of the agency.12 Nonetheless, the existence of the agency itself continued to present an obstacle in the administration’s attempts to remove federal publishing activities to the private sector. Per the longstanding requirements of Title 44, federal publications were required to be submitted to the GPO13 and were required to be made available to libraries participating in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) free of charge.14 The Reagan-era GPO evinced its willingness to play along with industry prerogatives, such as appointing industry members to serve on the Depository Library Council, the advisory body which guides the GPO’s Director and Superintendent of Documents on depository library issues.15 However, the pre-existing institutional and legal structure of the GPO and the FDLP meant that it would to some extent stand in the way of many efforts at privatization. The Reagan-era Justice Department did its part to discourage an expansive view of the scope of the GPO’s mandate through its interpretation of separation of powers doctrine. In two 1984 memoranda, Assistant Attorney General Theodore B. Olson argued that following the Supreme Court’s decision in INS v. Chadha 103 S. Ct. 2764 (1983), separation of powers prevented Congress from requiring executive branch agencies to seek approval from the Joint Committee on Printing before going outside of the GPO for publication.16 In combination with developing OMB policy, this interpretation served to free agencies from the commitment to the GPO as publisher and, indeed, the need to publish in the first place. Although the Reagan administration’s efforts at privatization received sustained scrutiny from the library community, the practice of privatization continued well beyond the 1980s. A 1998 Library Journal article, published by then-recently retired Superintendent of Documents Wayne Kelley, noted that the acquisition of government publications by private publishers continued on an ad hoc basis throughout the 1990s.17 Nonetheless, by the turn of the century it was clear that the government’s growing reliance on electronic publishing for information