Reviews & Essays

State and Local Government Review

2015, Vol. 47(3) 205-213
Using Transparency to ª The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0160323X15599427
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Trust in Local Government:
Can It Work?

Gregory A. Porumbescu1

Abstract
Increasingly, local governments view transparency as a means of (re)connecting with a citizenry that,
by many accounts, has grown distant. By improving the public’s access to government information,
the expectation is that seeds for more responsive and trustworthy local government will be sown.
Yet, empirical assessments of the relationship between transparency, responsiveness, and trust in
local government have been mixed. Therefore, the intention of this article is to provide an overview
of prior research that attempts to conceptually, and empirically, tie transparency to greater
responsiveness and trust in local government. Based upon this review of the literature, implications
for effective practice are discussed.

Keywords
transparency, local government, trust in government, responsiveness

Transparency has long been considered a cor- citizens with information, triggering confusion
nerstone of good governance (Hood 2010). It and reductions to functional accountability
can improve decision making (Bok 1989), (O’Neill 2002; Porumbescu and Im 2015). Oth-
impede corruption (Bertot, Jaeger, and Grimes ers find that greater exposure to information
2010), enhance accountability (Pina, Torres, pertaining to the inner workings of government
and Royo 2007), and foster a more informed can actually reduce citizens’ perceptions of
and understanding citizenry (Cook, Jacobs, and public sector legitimacy and trustworthiness
Kim 2010). When taken together, the varied (S. Grimmelikhuijsen et al. 2013; De Fine
benefits of enhanced transparency should cul- Licht 2014). With respect to performance
minate in more responsive and trustworthy management, enhanced transparency, when
public organizations (Goetz and Jenkins 2001;
Welch, Hinnant, and Moon 2005; Kim and Lee
2012). Therefore, recent attempts by local gov- 1
Department of Public Administration, Northern Illinois
ernments to enhance transparency have gener- University, DeKalb, IL, USA
ally been welcomed.
Yet, many are now challenging this long- Corresponding Author:
Gregory A. Porumbescu, Department of Public Adminis-
standing understanding of the effects that tration, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115,
accompany enhanced transparency. Some cau- USA.
tion that enhanced transparency can overload Email: gporumbescu@niu.edu
206 State and Local Government Review 47(3)

complemented by attempts to bolster perfor- establishing more responsive and trustworthy

mance evaluation, has been found to actually local government, are discussed.
detract from performance by incentivizing
‘‘minimum compliance rather than com-
Defining Transparency: What
mitted enthusiasm’’ of public employees
(Norman 2001, 83; Prat 2005). While this
Does It Entail?
developing stream of research does not Transparency refers to the extent external
necessarily argue against greater transpar- stakeholders are afforded regular access to
ency, it does highlight the need to better information about the way their public orga-
understand implications of attempts to nizations operate (Meijer 2013). Through dis-
increase transparency. closure of government information, a key
Due to citizens’ close proximity to local objective of enhanced transparency is to
governments, as well as a rapid increase in improve the public’s understanding of what
attempts to enhance transparency at this level, their government is doing and why. As will
this area of government is a particularly inter- be explained, this improved understanding of
esting context to assess the effects of attempts government is thought to engender greater trust
to enhance transparency. Accordingly, a large in government and more responsive public
number of studies have attempted to offer organizations (S. Grimmelikhuijsen et al.
insight into how public disclosure influences 2013; Porumbescu and Im 2015).
the way local governments function. While In order to enable the public to accurately
valuable, the breadth of findings makes distil- understand what their government is doing,
ling key themes and implications for effective information that is publicly disclosed must be
practice challenging. comprehensive in the sense that it touches upon
This article synthesizes the various perspec- the issues necessary to understand the actions
tives on transparency and also provides an taken by the government. There are several fra-
overview of the implications of local govern- meworks that have been developed to provide a
ments’ attempts to enhance transparency. To more systematic understanding of the types of
this end, two broad questions guide this article: information necessary to enhance ‘‘government
transparency.’’ Two examples of such frame-
1. How can transparency be used to promote works are outlined below.
more responsive performance by local The first framework divides local govern-
governments? and ment transparency into four dimensions (Cucci-
2. How can transparency be used to promote niello and Nasi 2014). The first institutional
greater citizen trust in local government? dimension focuses upon disclosure of informa-
tion pertaining to the activities of public organi-
Emphasis is placed upon responsiveness and zations. The second political dimension refers
trust in government in particular, as these are to information pertaining to political represen-
often outcomes of primary interest for reforms tatives, such as their salary or their attendance
intending to enhance transparency (S. G. Grim- in town hall meetings. The third dimension
melikhuijsen 2012). relates to financial management and outlines
This review proceeds as follows. First, an how public actors make use of the financial
overview is provided of research that discusses resources they are allocated. The fourth dimen-
what transparency is and the different ways sion of transparency, service delivery, outlines
transparency can promote more responsive and how local government performs in its delivery
trustworthy local government. Following this, of public services. Accordingly, disclosure of
the role of transparency as a tool in promoting information pertaining to each of these dimen-
more responsive and trustworthy local govern- sions is critical to affording citizens a compre-
ment is reevaluated and implications for more hensive understanding of how each component
effective use of transparency, as a tool for of their local government functions.
Porumbescu 207

The second framework divides transpar- the second claim is that enhanced transparency
ency of local government in general into three engenders greater trust in local government.
sequential components (Heald 2003; S. G. While transparency is thought to result in an
Grimmelikhuijsen 2012). The first compo- assortment of benefits to local government, this
nent, decision-making transparency, refers to review focuses upon responsiveness and trust in
citizens’ access to information about discus- government in particular as these claims tend to
sions leading up to the adoption of a particular be among the widely most discussed in the
policy—who were the actors involved in the local government literature.
process and what points were considered in
the decision to adopt a particular course of
action? The second dimension, policy trans- Claim 1: Transparency Promotes
parency, outlines how an adopted policy
More Responsive Local
intends to address a particular social issue as
well as anticipated effects on different seg-
Government
ments of the population. The third and final Accountability plays an important role in link-
dimension is policy outcome transparency, ing transparency to more responsive local gov-
which addresses the provision of information ernment. By affording greater public access to
to the public that details the actual effects of government information, external stakeholders
a particular policy. Taken together, these are empowered to align the performance of
three dimensions, like those proposed by Cuc- their local government more closely with their
ciniello and Nasi, are intended to provide the own preferences. Therefore, from this perspec-
public a comprehensive understanding of tive, a central objective of transparency policy
what the government is doing, how the gov- is mainly one of empowerment. Moreover, as
ernment is doing it, and why. discussed earlier, achieving this objective is
As both frameworks illustrate, enhancing contingent upon the disclosure of various forms
transparency of local government means much of government information.
more than the mere provision of ‘‘more infor- For enhanced transparency to actually
mation to more people’’ (Welch, Hinnant, and empower citizens, it must be both accessed by
Moon 2005, 375). Rather, the information and intelligible to the general public. Prior
needed to enhance local government transpar- research, however, finds this to be a challenge.
ency is diverse. In large part, this is due to the For example, Cook, Jacobs, and Kim (2010)
broad spectrum of obligations local govern- reason that motivation among citizens to obtain
ments are responsible for. As such, without government information will vary according to
access to such comprehensive information, the the subject area—retirees are more likely to be
public will be unable to accurately understand more motivated to obtain information about
and evaluate the actions of their government. changes to social security than recent college
For example, exposure to information on policy graduates. Etzioni (2010) argues that not all cit-
outcomes (policy outcome transparency) may izens possess the same cognitive capacity—
help the public obtain a better understanding some will be able to make more effective use
of the effects of a particular policy. Yet, with- of the information transparency affords them
out exposure to information that discusses the than others. Taken together, two key challenges
intended effects of said policy (policy transpar- can be identified when attempting to link
ency), it is impossible for the public to accu- greater transparency to greater responsiveness
rately gauge performance. in local government. The first challenge is to
In the sections that follow, two claims that effectively disseminate the types of informa-
frequently accompany decisions to enhance tion necessary to empower the public, whereas
transparency are assessed. The first claim is the second challenge is to ensure that access to
that enhanced transparency promotes greater such information empowers all segments of the
responsiveness of local governments, whereas population equally.
208 State and Local Government Review 47(3)

Empirical assessments of the utility of information in that they tended to be willing

transparency in promoting more responsive to enhance transparency related to some areas,
local government also bring to light some while avoiding greater transparency in others.
additional challenges in linking greater trans- For example, governments may be more forth-
parency to a more responsive local govern- coming with information about public services
ment. To highlight these challenges, three but provide less information on the political
examples are discussed. Each example was dimension.
chosen for the reason it extends the discussion A third example examines the nexus of
in the preceding paragraph by providing more transparency, accountability, and responsive-
applied perspectives on the relationship ness through a lens of influenza pandemic
between transparency, accountability, and planning by local governments across the
responsiveness. United States (French 2011). As the author
First, a recent study by Im, Porumbescu, and explains, from an administrative perspective,
Lee (2013) examined the Seoul Metropolitan meaningful pandemic planning requires a
Government’s widely used nonemergency call dynamic exchange of information between
center (Dasan Call Center), which was tasked various segments of the population and the
with enhancing the transparency, accountabil- local government responsible for their safety.
ity, and responsiveness of the Seoul Metropol- Yet, of the fifty cities surveyed, only twenty-
itan Government. Their analysis indicated that, eight had ‘‘a pandemic influenza plan that is
while the Dasan Call Center improved citizens’ available for public review, either online or
access to information about the Seoul Metro- by request’’ (p. 261). In fact, as French finds,
politan Government, critical responses to this influenza planning in most municipalities
information on the part of citizens were often appears to constitute a very closed activity.
addressed selectively. Specifically, the mayor, As such, despite the clear benefits of
whose purview the operation fell under, would enhanced transparency and responsiveness in
typically only respond to citizens’ attempts to this particular policy domain, there is a
hold their government accountable when he marked tendency among many municipal
thought doing so would give him a leg up on governments in the United States to eschew
a political rival. In this sense, while overall greater transparency and limit opportunities
government transparency was increased by the for public input.
Dasan Call Center, the links to accountability When taken together, what these examples
and responsiveness were only present when the illustrate is that transparency, on its own, is
Mayor deemed them politically expedient. insufficient for stimulating greater administra-
A second study, by Pina, Torres, and Royo tive accountability and responsiveness in local
(2007), examines how local governments in fif- government. Rather, attempts to enhance trans-
teen European Union member states made use parency must be complemented by the estab-
of e-government websites to enhance levels of lishment formal channels through which the
transparency, accountability, and responsive- public can consistently act upon the informa-
ness to citizens. In general, their findings are tion they are afforded. Yet, in practice, such
similar to those in Seoul—local governments, opportunities are seldom provided. As a final
across the fifteen nations, tended to make active point, while the examples discussed here
use of websites to afford citizens access to gov- address the relationship between transparency
ernment information. Yet, while citizens’ and responsiveness at a single level of govern-
access to information increased, the websites ment, and within specific administrative con-
typically had little bearing upon accountability texts, further evidence suggests that the trends
in these local governments, as the websites identified here are pervasive in that they are
typically lacked an interactive component. found across different national contexts and
Another notable finding here is that govern- levels of government (Wong and Welch 2004;
ments were selective in their disclosure of Fox 2007; Piotrowski et al. 2009; Eom 2014).
Porumbescu 209

Claim 2: Transparency Promotes Yet, despite claims that greater transparency

Trust in Local Government can enhance levels of trust in government, evi-
dence suggests the relationship between these
In addition to enhancing responsiveness, trans- two constructs is far more complex. To illus-
parency is argued to promote public trust in trate some of the contours of this relationship
government. This is because transparency can between transparency and trust in local govern-
be used to correct misperceptions of govern- ment in an applied context, an overview of
ment performance that result from a lack of findings from prior literature drawn from dis-
information. Specifically, citizens often lack tinct administrative contexts is provided.
objective information about what their govern- Worthy (2013) has examined the relation-
ment does for them, or how well their govern- ship between transparency and trust in local
ment is performing, and as a result are overly government in the United Kingdom. In his
critical of the performance of their local gov- analysis, an interesting dynamic to the relation-
ernment (Kelly 2002; Mettler 2011; Im, Porum- ship between transparency and trust in local
bescu, and Lee 2013). government is uncovered, in that the medium
Kelly and Swindell (2002) outline two through which citizens access government
forms of errors citizens make when eval- information appears to bear heavily upon their
uating local government that occur when decision to trust government. As Worthy
citizens lack information about their govern- explains, in many instances, citizens’ exposure
ment. The first is an error in attribution that to government information came through their
occurs when citizens are not aware of who is use of mass media outlets, which often obtain
responsible for the delivery of a particular information from local governments via free-
public service (p. 612). For example, citi- dom of information requests. The author
zens may believe that a private or nonprofit observed that the effects of this mediated form
organization is responsible for the operation of transparency would typically vary according
of a local public health clinic. The second is to whether the coverage portrayed government
an error in assessment, where citizens’ eva- in a positive or negative light. As such, in this
luations of a service contradict data afforded instance, no consistent link was uncovered lead-
by objective performance indicators. For ing Worthy to conclude that transparency pos-
example, citizens may perceive water pro- sessed ‘‘no general impact on trust’’ (p. 406).
vided by a local water sanitation facility as In contrast to Worthy’s findings, research by
less potable than bottled water provided by Tolbert and Mossberger (2006) offers a differ-
a private manufacturer, despite scientific ent perspective on the relationship between
evidence to the contrary. transparency and citizens’ trust in local govern-
Errors in attribution and errors in assess- ments in the United States. Specifically, this
ment, and the absence of information that article did not offer direct evidence of a posi-
causes them, can lead to a situation where the tive relationship between transparency and trust
public perceives government as not doing in local government. However, the authors did
enough to promote citizens’ well-being. Some find evidence of a strong relationship between
argue that enhancing transparency can reduce citizens’ use of e-government, their perceptions
errors of attribution and assessment by expos- of local government responsiveness, and their
ing the public to information that clarifies levels of trust in the local government. These
how local government is contributing to the findings are interpreted to suggest that the
public’s well-being, and to what effect (Buell information afforded to citizens via local gov-
and Norton 2013). By allowing citizens to ernment’s websites may clarify the role their
understand more clearly how the actions of government plays in responding to public needs
local government are contributing to the pub- and improving the quality of life, which in turn
lic’s well-being, transparency is reasoned to bolsters levels of trust in local government
promote greater trust in government. (p. 366). To this end, the results of this study
210 State and Local Government Review 47(3)

can be interpreted to offer a degree of support observes that ‘‘mostly, transparency is one of
for those arguing that transparency’s primary those banal ideas . . . that are taken as unexcep-
contribution to trust in government stems from tionable in discussions of governance and pub-
its ability to demonstrate the various ways the lic management.’’ To this end, even if attempts
public sector is contributing to the public’s to enhance transparency fall short of achieving
well-being. objectives such as improving the responsive-
As a final example, research by S. Grimme- ness of, or enhancing public trust in local gov-
likhuijsen et al. (2013) sought to examine ernment, they can still be construed as
whether national culture had any bearing on the successful, as long it can be demonstrated that
relationship between transparency and trust in public access to some form of government
government. Through the use of a series of information expanded. In this way, transpar-
experiments, the authors assessed how decision ency in local government has traditionally been
making, policy, and policy outcome transpar- viewed as more of an administrative value that
ency related to citizens’ perceptions of public undergirds good governance, than a public ser-
sector trustworthiness in South Korean central vice in itself (cf. Piotrowski 2014). However,
government and Dutch local governments. with developments in information and commu-
They found that the relationship between the nication technology and, consequently, the
different forms of transparency and citizens’ increased ease with which local governments
perceptions of public sector trustworthiness, can now publicly disclose information, current
in both contexts, generally lacked a positive discourse suggests that the way we conceive of
relationship to perceptions of trustworthiness. transparency has evolved subtly, yet conspicu-
Moreover, when policy outcome transparency ously, over the course of the past decades to
conveyed information pertaining to policy out- embody characteristics and concerns typically
comes that were negative (a policy fell short of attributed to public services.
achieving its stated objectives), a slight nega- What has become apparent in the course of
tive effect upon trust in government was uncov- this article is that local governments are begin-
ered, with the magnitude of the effect slightly ning to pay more attention to issues related to
higher in South Korea. From these findings, the the implementation of and outcomes associ-
authors conclude that in general, transparency ated with transparency. In this respect, dis-
lacks an impact upon trust in the government, course on local government transparency is
unless the information disseminated is nega- now shifting toward concerns related to effec-
tive, in which case trust in the government may tive practice with regard to information provi-
be negatively impacted. sion (Asgarkhani 2005; Bertot, Jaeger, and
These three studies were selected in order to Grimes 2010; Porumbescu and Im 2015;
illustrate different shapes the relationship Cucciniello et al. 2014). As such, based upon
between transparency and trust in government the literature previously discussed, two impli-
can take in an applied setting. A common cations for effective practice are outlined.
theme found in each of these studies is that First, as the way transparency is conceived
transparency lacks a consistent relationship to of increasingly incorporates aspects of a public
trust in government—in some instances, trans- service, greater attention will have to be paid to
parency can reduce levels of trust in govern- considerations that relate to the supply and
ment, but seldom does transparency, on its demand for government information—is the
own, result in greater trust in government. government supplying citizens with the types
of information they demand? As discussed
earlier, the general concept of local govern-
Implications for Practice: The Evolving
ment transparency incorporates a host of dis-
Ethos of Local Government Transparency? tinct forms of information pertaining to
Hood (2007, 192), who has written extensively actions taken by local government. However,
on the topic of public sector transparency, the types of information publicly disclosed
Porumbescu 211

by local governments, often in accordance cultivates with different civil society organiza-
with various legal obligations, do not necessa- tions in the community it serves. This is largely
rily lead to increased availability of govern- because of civil society organization’s ability to
ment information that the public views as operate as an intermediary that effectively
relevant (Cucciniello et al. 2014). Rather, communicates the relevance of government
merely adhering to legal obligations for dis- information to different segments of the com-
closure is, in itself, unlikely to be sufficient for munity. Taken together, a key implication for
obtaining goals of engendering greater respon- practice to be drawn is that effective, efficient,
siveness and trust in local government. As and equitable delivery of government informa-
such, efforts to enhance public disclosure must tion necessitates the careful cultivation of a net-
be supplemented by attempts to ensure that the work of third party actors (e.g., universities or
transparency policies of local governments nonprofits), who are viewed as credible by both
disclose the types of information that the pub- citizens and local government. Through estab-
lic deems relevant, so as to improve the lishing such a network of credible intermedi-
chances of the general public accessing and aries to disseminate government information,
using the information afforded to them. It is it is possible for local governments to capitalize
only by ensuring the general public accesses upon the ability of these organizations to effec-
government information that we can then hope tively communicate the relevance of informa-
to see greater responsiveness and trust in local tion pertaining to their local government to
government. different segments of the community, while at
Second, as discussed earlier, there is a ten- the same time creating the potential for citizens
dency for transparency to fall short of enhan- to evaluate information more objectively.
cing accountability and trust in government.
What this suggests is that, because the informa- Declaration of Conflicting Interests
tion being supplied by government is perceived The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of inter-
as lacking immediate relevance to the general est with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
public it is underused and, therefore, fails to publication of this article.
fulfill objectives of enhancing trust in govern-
ment and local government responsiveness. Funding
To some, the lack of consistent empirical evi- The author(s) received no financial support for the
dence has led to doubts over the utility of trans- research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
parency in achieving such objectives. To
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Author Biography
of e-government on trust and confidence in gov-
ernment. Public Administration Review 66: Gregory A. Porumbescu is an assistant professor
354–69. and received his PhD from the Graduate School
Welch, E. W., C. C. Hinnant, and M. J. Moon. 2005. of Public Administration at Seoul National Univer-
Linking citizen satisfaction with e-government sity in 2013. His research interests primarily relate
and trust in government. Journal of Public to public sector applications of information and
communications technology, transparency and
Administration Research and Theory 15:371–91.
accountability, and citizens’ perceptions of public
Wong, W., and E. Welch. 2004. Does e-government
service provision. His work has appeared in or
promote accountability? A comparative analysis is forthcoming in The Journal of Public Adminis-
of website openness and government account- tration Research and Theory, Public Administra-
ability. Governance 17:275–97. tion Review, Administration & Society, Policy &
Worthy, B. 2013. ‘‘Some are more open than Internet, and Public Performance and Manage-
others’’: Comparing the impact of the Freedom ment Review.