Linking Transparency to Trust in Government and Voice

• Author: Gregory Porumbescu
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0275074015607301
• Subject Matter: Articles

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American Review of Public Administration

2017, Vol. 47(5) 520 –537

© The Author(s) 2015

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074015607301

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Article

The objective of this study is to provide a more nuanced

assessment of the relationship between public sector transpar-

ency and trust in government. Specifically, we examine how

citizens’ exposure to different tools used to enhance transpar-

ency—social media and government websites—relate to their

perceptions of government trustworthiness. We then examine

how these relationships vary according to how frequently citi-

zens exercise voice. Findings indicate respondents’ use of

public sector social media is positively related to perceptions

of government trustworthiness. Government website use

lacks a significant relationship to perceptions of government

trustworthiness. However, a strong negative relationship

emerged between government website use and perceptions of

trustworthiness as respondents’ frequency of voice increased.

Today, governments around the world are making frequent

use of information and communication technology (ICT) in

an effort enhance public sector transparency. In turn, such

efforts have given way to new and distinct forms of transpar-

ency (Meijer, 2009). Practitioners and academics have gener-

ally applauded the use of ICTs to enhance transparency, citing

a common belief that greater transparency can help to allay a

number of challenges facing governments today (Ackerman,

2004; Fox, 2007; Hood, 2006; Obama, 2009).

Perhaps the most significant challenge transparency is

believed to mitigate is a long-standing and widespread decline in

levels of citizen trust in government (Chanley, Rudolph, & Rahn,

2000; Miller, 1974). In large part, the belief that greater transpar-

ency fosters greater trust in government is premised upon an

assumption that the more objective information citizens have

about their government, the more positively they will perceive

their government (Nye, 1997; cf. Buell & Norton, 2013; Mettler,

2011). Yet, empirical assessments of this relationship have turned

back mixed results, leaving many to wonder what impact trans-

parency has upon citizens’ trust in government, if any at all (S.

Grimmelikhuijsen, Porumbescu, Hong, & Im, 2013; Tolbert &

Mossberger, 2006; Welch, Hinnant, & Moon, 2005).

This research contributes to the developing body of litera-

ture that seeks to substantiate upon the relationship between

transparency and trust in government in two ways. First, we

examine how the relationship between transparency and trust

in government varies according to the medium being used to

enhance transparency. A rich vein of empirical research has

demonstrated that the way information is presented bears

more significantly upon individuals’ evaluations of an object

than the actual content of the information (Fiegenbaum &

Thomas, 1988; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). However, to

date, there have been no attempts to examine how relation-

ships between transparency and trust in government may

vary according to the particular medium being used to

enhance transparency. Therefore, the first objective of this

study is to examine how citizens’ frequency of use of different

forms of mediated transparency relates to their levels of trust

in government.1 This study focuses upon citizens’ frequency

of use of two forms of computer-mediated transparency in

particular: public sector social media accounts and

1Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Gregory Porumbescu, School of Public and Global Affairs, Department

of Public Administration, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115,

USA.

Email: gporumbescu@niu.edu

Linking Transparency to Trust in

Government and Voice

Gregory Porumbescu1

Abstract

The objective of this study is to provide a more nuanced assessment of the relationship between public sector transparency

and trust in government. Specifically, we examine how different tools used to enhance transparency—social media and

e-government websites—relate to citizens’ perceptions of government trustworthiness. We then examine how these

relationships vary according to how frequently citizens exercise voice. Findings indicate respondents’ use of public sector

social media is positively related to perceptions of government trustworthiness. E-government website use lacks a significant

relationship to perceptions of government trustworthiness. However, a strong negative relationship emerged between

e-government website use and perceptions of trustworthiness as respondents’ frequency of voice increased.

Keywords

public administration, transparency, international public administration/governance, e-government

Porumbescu 521

government websites. These two mediums are addressed

because they present information in very different ways—

social media is used to provide a general overview of public

affairs, whereas government websites are generally used to

provide more detailed information pertaining to the public

sector.

Second, we examine how transparency and citizens’ use

of “voice” interact to frame perceptions of government trust-

worthiness. Voice, a form of “soft accountability” (Fox,

2007, p. 668), and transparency often accompany one another

(for a discussion, see Hood, 2010). Yet, despite the close

relationship between transparency and voice, there have

been no attempts to examine how these constructs interact to

affect citizens’ trust in government. Instead, the tacit and

general assumption, with few exceptions (e.g., de Fine Licht,

2014; S. G. Grimmelikhuijsen & Meijer, 2014), is that the

relationship between transparency and trust in government

operates identically across different types of citizens—that it

is strictly linear—despite strong arguments to the contrary

(e.g., Cook, Jacobs, & Kim, 2010; Etzioni, 2010). Therefore,

the second objective of this study is to examine whether the

relationship between the two forms of computer-mediated

transparency examined in this study and trust in government

differ according to the frequency with which citizens exercise

voice. Examining how the relationship between transparency

and trust varies according to voice is important because it

provides preliminary insights into how citizens’ attempts to

hold the government accountable relate to their perceptions

of government and, therefore, elaborates upon the contours

of the relationship between transparency and perceptions of

trustworthiness identified in prior research.

Findings indicate that the medium matters in that the two

forms of computer-mediated transparency included in the

analyses relate to citizens’ levels of trust in government dif-

ferently. Specifically, citizens’ frequency of use of govern-

ment websites for information on public affairs generally

lacks a significant association with citizens’ levels of trust in

government, whereas citizens’ frequency of use of public

sector social media accounts for information about public

affairs is found to be positively associated with citizens’ lev-

els of trust in government. Moreover, an inverse relationship

emerges between frequency of government website use and

trust in government as citizens exercise voice more

frequently.

Trust in Government

This study focuses upon citizens’ trust in a particular public

sector institution, the Seoul Metropolitan Government

(SMG). In a broad sense, citizens’ trust in government is

important as it speaks to the quality of relationship that exists

between citizens and their government. Furthermore, when

viewed through an administrative lens, the value of citizens’

trust in government is also made apparent through its contri-

butions to public sector efficiency and effectiveness (Yang &

Holzer, 2006). For example, in contexts where trust in

government is low, costs of policy implementation tend to be

higher (Scholz & Lubell, 1998), citizens tend to be less will-

ing to engage with their public institutions (Berman, 1997),

and recruitment of talented and motivated personnel to a

career in public service becomes more challenging (Van de

Walle, 2004). Conversely, in contexts where levels of trust in

government is higher, citizens tend to be more willing to vol-

untarily comply with public policies (Im, Cho, Porumbescu,

& Park, 2014), coproduction of public services is facilitated

(Cuthill & Fien, 2005), and support for democratic processes

is more common (Mishler & Rose, 2005). Therefore, because

of the important and diffuse implications of citizens’ trust in

government, this issue has attracted considerable interest

from public administration scholars and practitioners alike.

In conceptualizing trust, one of the most often used defi-

nitions in the social sciences is put forth by Rousseau, Sitkin,

Burt, and Camerer (1998), who define this construct as, “a

psychological state comprising the intention to accept vul-

nerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions

or behavior of another” (p. 395). Positive expectations,

which decisions to trust are premised upon, typically relate

to a citizen’s perceptions of government trustworthiness (S.

E. Kim, 2005). A framework that is commonly used to pro-

vide a more structured understanding of citizens’ perceptions

of government trustworthiness was developed by S.

Grimmelikhuijsen (2011, 2012), who divides perceptions of

trustworthiness into three dimensions—competence, benev-

olence, and honesty.

The first dimension of trustworthiness, competence,

refers to citizens’ perception that their government possesses

the resources and skills that are needed to fulfill its obliga-

tions to society (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1998). As such, per-

ceptions of competence are closely linked to government

performance (Hetherington, 1998). Benevolence, the second

dimension, refers to citizens’ perception that their govern-

ment acts with the public’s best interests in mind (Levi &

Stoker, 2000). Honesty, the third dimension of trustworthi-

ness, speaks to citizens’ perception that their government is

sincere in its dealings with the public and makes an effort to

honor its obligations (McKnight, Choudhury, & Kacmar,

2002). Typically, citizens’ positive evaluations of these three

dimensions of trustworthiness are said to result in higher lev-

els of trust in government.

Citizens’ evaluations of government trustworthiness are

informed by a variety of political, societal, and cultural fac-

tors (Nye, 1997). To this end, specific factors that are often

found to influence citizens’ perceptions of government trust-

worthiness include mass media use (Gordon, 2000), political

ideology (Rudolph & Evans, 2005), civic engagement

(Putnam, 2000), and even the rise of the Internet (Mathews,

1997). All of these factors are thought to have an important

influence upon citizens’ perceptions of government trustwor-

thiness due to their role in relaying government information

to citizens and framing the way they interact with public

institutions. Yet, over the course of the past few decades,

these factors have also been argued to contribute toward a