Daniel Patrick Moynihan[0] wrote a book called Secrecy. If I remember it correctly, I took away two main points:
* A highly valuable asset within government is information and thus workers are incentivized to hoard it and protect its value, including by classifying it and not sharing it (i.e., keeping secrets).
* Secrecy can lead to extraordinarily bad results. Instead of being exposed to open debate, the secret information or idea is restricted to a few insiders who lack diverse perspectives, can easily form an echo chamber, or who may be politically pressured or desirous to support the conclusion.
[0] Unusual career, if you don't know of him: Senator, PhD. and published sociologist, Ambassador to India and the UN, White House advisor on urban affairs. With his deep skills and experience in both research and government, few are more qualified to talk about these things.
Additionally, started out life working-class and was working as a longshoreman while attending CUNY; Ta-Nehisi Coates spent some time describing Moynihan's remarkable gifts in an interesting article for The Atlantic a few years ago[0].
I avoided praising him too much in order to avoid other questions, but since you bring it up: We should also remember his advocacy of some bad things, including some arguably discriminatory or at least condescending policies toward his black fellow citizens, and support of mass murderers in Indonesia and East Timor. (I'm not going into details, but people interested in him should look up the whole picture.)
* A highly valuable asset within government is information and thus workers are incentivized to hoard it and protect its value, including by classifying it and not sharing it (i.e., keeping secrets).
* Secrecy can lead to extraordinarily bad results. Instead of being exposed to open debate, the secret information or idea is restricted to a few insiders who lack diverse perspectives, can easily form an echo chamber, or who may be politically pressured or desirous to support the conclusion.
[0] Unusual career, if you don't know of him: Senator, PhD. and published sociologist, Ambassador to India and the UN, White House advisor on urban affairs. With his deep skills and experience in both research and government, few are more qualified to talk about these things.