Figure 1. Research model
Governments around the world are looking for improve the transparència providing information about its performance and about the government's activities on public websites. The optimists of the transparència argue that showing citizens the results of government policies through clear performance indicators and targets helps increase trust in government. But in reality, the transparència is the key to trusting a government?
Some have been done empirical studies about the effects of the transparència but with disparate results: while, in some cases, positive effects have been observed, in others the adverse effects of the transparència on trust. A flaw in these studies is that the effect of transparència on trust in government has been discussed in general terms and it can be argued that this approach levels out all differences between the population. The studies mentioned do not distinguish between different groups of citizens and, consequently, cannot identify effects that depend on prior attitudes and the political awareness of citizens.
In order to better understand the relationship between the transparència and trust, Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen and Albert Meijer have developed a study on the moderating effects that certain characteristics of citizens have on the relationship between transparència and the perceived reliability of the government.
You can consult an article with the main characteristics and conclusions of this study in the following link: Study Transparència
The results presented in this article were published in: Grimmelikhuijsen, SG; Meijer, AJ (2014). 'The Effects of Transparency on the Perceived Trustworthiness of a Government Organization: Evidence from an Online Experiment', Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 24 (1): 137-157.
