Effective Transparency and Institutional Trust in Honduran Municipal Governments

• Author: Francisco Bastida,Lorenzo Estrada
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095399719874346
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399719874346

Administration & Society

2020, Vol. 52(6) 890 –926

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399719874346

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Article

Effective Transparency

and Institutional Trust

in Honduran Municipal

Governments

Lorenzo Estrada1 and Francisco Bastida2,3

Abstract

This article investigates trust in Honduran Municipal Governments and

shows that transparency and municipal services quality impact on trust.

We posit the Theory of Effective Transparency: relevant information should

be reported; transparency should be based on unbiased information; and

municipal data should be comparable with other municipal governments.

Municipalities where one political party has an overall majority are trusted

more, and audited financial statements generate a positive impact on trust.

Engagement and participation also affect trust. As a practical implication,

municipal governments should increase trust by involving citizens in municipal

issues. Finally, quality of democracy is connected with greater trust.

Keywords

trust, transparency, local government, corruption, municipal services quality,

engagement

Introduction

Trust is considered a cornerstone for democracy, as it enhances the legiti-

macy, validity, and sustainability of governments by connecting citizens with

public institutions (Godefroidt, Langer, & Meuleman, 2017).

1Francisco Morazán National Pedagogical University, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

2University of Murcia, Spain

3American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia

Corresponding Author:

Francisco Bastida, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Murcia, Campus

Espinardo, Murcia E-30100, Spain.

Email: alba@um.es

874346AASXXX10.1177/0095399719874346Administration & SocietyEstrada and Bastida

research-article2019

Estrada and Bastida 891

At the local level, academics have offered empirical evidence that trust is

an important component of the perceived legitimacy of a political system. On

one hand, it reinforces compliance with government regulations and taxes,

thus preserving the rule of law. On the other, it can contribute to democratic

stability in new democracies (Córdova & Layton, 2016).

Although trust is considered as a critical component of good governance

(Wu, Ma, & Yu, 2017), public trust in governments has decreased signifi-

cantly in recent decades (Gordon, 2000; M. J. Park, Choi, Kim, & Rho, 2015;

Welch, Hinnant, & Moon, 2005). According to Bouckaert and van de Walle

(2003), the most frequently expressed concern by politicians, journalists, and

the general public is the decrease in confidence in the government and the

harmful effects that this generates for it.

Despite the importance of institutional trust and the crucial role played by

local governments in the preservation of economic development and demo-

cratic governance, theories about which factors explain citizens’ confidence

in local governments remain underdeveloped (Córdova & Layton, 2016).

Hence, there is a lack of research on government trust in Central America

and, specifically, on municipal government trust.

This article seeks to fill this research gap, and our research question is to

what extent transparency and other factors impact on institutional trust.

Transparency is essential for the proper functioning of the governments.

Public sector transparency is required by state legislation to guarantee the

understanding of public policies, to reduce uncertainty, and to promote citi-

zen participation and democracy (Lee, 2017).

A transparent fiscal system encourages politicians to adopt better poli-

cies that consolidate a sustainable fiscal system (Arbatli & Escolano,

2015) while also improving public debate. In Latin America, recent legis-

lation has sought greater disclosure and transparency. Nevertheless, the

legacy of authoritarianism and opacity still pervades in most Central

American countries (Michener, 2015). Sometimes, nominal transparency

is far from effective as there may be a gap between what is reported and

what is happening in reality (Heald, 2006). This article focuses on trans-

parency as an effective tool to both enhance trust in municipal govern-

ments and hold them accountable.

From the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) survey, we

take a sample of 1,561 responses from 51 Honduran municipalities in 2014.

We chose this country and the year 2014 for two reasons. First, Honduras is

the only country where the LAPOP questionnaire includes the question about

“transparency in municipal government,” and, second, 2014 is the most

recent year for which municipal financial data are available in Honduras.

These financial data appear as control variables in our models.

892 Administration & Society 52(6)

Our data show that transparency significantly impacts on trust, but that cor-

ruption does not. In addition, the quality of municipal services strongly impacts

on trust. Finally, both citizens’ engagement and participation impact on trust.

The article is organized as follows. “Literature Review on Trust in

Government” section discusses the literature. “Local Governments in

Honduras” section describes the Honduran municipal sector. “Method” sec-

tion addresses the methodology. “Results and Discussion” section offers our

results and the discussion. Finally, “Conclusions and Further Research” sec-

tion summarizes the conclusions and proposes further research.

Literature Review on Trust in Government

Introduction

Theories of collective action point to the importance of the rules of reciproc-

ity, reputation, and trust, where individual action is influenced, in a certain

way, by expectations about how others will act (Bauhr, 2017). Institutional

legitimacy contributes to the organization of effective political groups and

government institutions, which in turn promotes citizens’ trust (Marlowe,

2004; Maxwell, 2010).

The literature has identified several determinants of institutional trust.

First, transparency shows a mixed impact on trust, meaning that if govern-

ments become more transparent, this does not ensure, per se, higher trust

from citizens. Second, corruption undermines institutional trust. Here, we

must bear in mind that the impact differs when comparing different contexts.

Thus, in developed countries, corruption erodes trust in the government, but

it does not destroy the democratic system. However, corruption in develop-

ing countries has deeply shaken these new democracies. Third, citizens’ sat-

isfaction with municipal services is clearly identified by the literature as a

determinant of trust in municipal governments. Finally, the literature has

reported additional determinants of institutional trust, which are summa-

rized in Table 1.

Transparency

There is no clear impact of transparency on trust. As Cucciniello, Porumbescu,

and Grimmelikhuijsen (2017) indicate, the relationships between transpar-

ency and trust in government depend on whether the study drew on observa-

tional data or experimental data. In fact, these authors find that, from the

literature they reviewed, seven articles show a positive impact, three a nega-

tive one, four mixed ones, and one finds no effect.