Does Informing about Government Transparency Boost Trust? Exploring an Overlooked Mechanism
Juan Pablo Ripamonti
📄 Government Information Quarterly
. 2024.
Governments implement transparency policies aiming to enhance citizens' trust, but the outcomes of these efforts are complex and not fully understood. Existing literature often focuses on how citizens consume government information, but tends to overlook the impact of the act of disclosure itself. This study seeks to fill this gap by examining citizens' responses to the act of government disclosure, independent of the content disclosed. Through a factorial survey experiment, the research manipulates motivations, types, and levels of information disclosure across two distinct organizations to assess their impact on public trust. The findings reveal that the act of disclosure generally enhances trust perceptions, but this effect is significantly modulated by individuals' pre-existing attitudes toward transparency. Those indifferent about transparency do not show increased trust, while for those who value transparency, trust increases notably. The study also finds that the disclosure of performance information, particularly when combined with financial information, has the most substantial impact on trust. Moreover, public trust is higher when organizations disclose more information than legally required. These results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how government transparency influences public trust and highlight the importance of considering citizen attitudes in transparency initiatives.
How Transparency Influences Trust in Government: A Multi-Mechanism Framework.
Juan Pablo Ripamonti, Greg Porumbescu, Greta Nasi
📨 Manuscript submitted for publication
While the relationship between transparency and trust in government is increasingly recognized as complex, existing theories offer fragmented accounts that focus on different aspects of the relationship. As a result, we lack clear explanations for divergent empirical findings and for when transparency affects trust. We address this gap by developing an integrative framework grounded in citizens’ attribution processes. We argue that transparency shapes trust in public organizations by providing cues that citizens use to infer whether an organization has the capacity and orientation to meet expectations. Such cues may arise from disclosure itself, from citizens’ engagement with disclosed information directly or via intermediaries, and from organizational behavioral and performance changes induced by transparency arrangements. We label these pathways disclosure-, information-, and behavior-based mechanisms, and specify key conditions and contextual moderators under which they influence trust. We illustrate the framework using hypothetical scenarios involving police body-worn cameras and hospital performance reporting, and discuss implications for research and the design of transparency initiatives.
Strategies for mediating downstream citizen voice into public policy and service ecosystems - what, how and why?
Rebecca Kirley, Juan Pablo Ripamonti, Maria Cucciniello
📨 Manuscript submitted for publication
Citizen voice is solicited in government to hold providers accountable, advance democratic values, and improve service delivery. Downstream citizen voice, such as complaints, can reveal pressure points, diverse needs, and failures in complex service ecosystems. However, theory and evidence on how noisy, unstructured citizen voice is mediated into policy and service arenas remain limited. Addressing this gap, this project looks to ombud institutions and related actors, which span citizen–state boundaries and policy networks. We use a qualitative approach to elaborate the concept of citizen voice mediation and to explore what strategies ombuds use to mediate downstream voice, and what drives these choices. Findings from interpretivist analysis of documents and interviews in Italy, the UK, and Argentina identify three outward mediation repertoires—authoritative‑targeted, facilitative‑collectivizing, and making information accessible and meaningful—expressed through directive (AR), hybrid (IT), and curatorial (UK) profiles. These strategies are shaped by different forms of ecosystemic fragmentation and actor capacities. The study advances a novel theorization of citizen voice mediation, develops positive propositions for testing, and deepens understanding of how voice can be strategically mediated to foster change in complex policy and service ecosystems.
3D Printing: A New Industrial Revolution?
Juan Pablo Ripamonti
📚 In: Kléber Ghimire (ed.), Future Courses of Human Societies: Critical Reflections from the Natural and Social Sciences. Routledge
. 2018.
This chapter examines the transformative potential of additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, as a catalyst for a new industrial revolution. It contrasts AM with the traditional factory system, discussing how AM could decentralize production and enable mass customization. By presenting two scenarios, the chapter explores the economic and social impacts of widespread AM adoption, including shifts in labor markets, challenges to global supply chains, and issues surrounding intellectual property in a digital world. The discussion concludes by considering the broader implications of AM, highlighting its potential to democratize production and reduce waste while raising critical questions about economic stability and the future of work.
