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.
Strategies for mediating downstream citizen voice into public policy and service ecosystems
Rebecca Kirley, Juan Pablo Ripamonti, Maria Cucciniello
🚧 In preparation
Mixed methods study on how oversight institutions mediate citizen complaints information into public policy.
Transparency and trust in government. A multi-level framework.
Juan Pablo Ripamonti, Greg Porumbescu
🚧 In preparation
Transparency is often promoted as a mechanism to enhance citizen trust in public institutions. However, empirical evidence reveals a nuanced reality: transparency can both strengthen and undermine trust. These mixed findings underscore the need for a deeper understanding of how transparency influences trust, accounting for micro-, meso-, and macro-level pathways, as well as its gradual, indirect, and diffuse effects. Drawing on insights from public administration and political science, this paper proposes a multi-level theoretical framework that synthesizes existing explanations of the transparency-trust relationship. The framework addresses the interplay between individual, organizational, and institutional dynamics, offering a structured approach to reinterpret empirical findings and guide the design of effective transparency policies.
A Topic Modeling Analysis of Twitter Posts: Ten Years of Public Opinion on U.S. Institutions
Juan Pablo Ripamonti
🚧 In preparation
Analysis of Twitter posts on the U.S. Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch using BERTopic.
The Influence of Transparency on Trust in Government. A Systematic Review of Empirical Research
Juan Pablo Ripamonti
🚧 In preparation
Citizens’ trust in government is a fundamental prerequisite for good governance. There exists a debate on whether trust can be bolstered through government transparency or if transparency might actually diminish trust. In this article, I aim to reconcile these divergent theoretical stances by elucidating the primary pathways through which transparency can impact citizens’ trust. I undertake a systematic review of the empirical literature to ascertain our current understanding of these pathways. The review’s findings suggest that existing empirical research only addresses a subset of these pathways, and there is a lack of consensus among these studies on whether transparency fosters trust. Furthermore, the empirical literature largely neglects the potential variability in the effects of transparency on government trust across different social groups, which could result in a polarization of trust. These findings bear significant implications for practitioners aiming to enhance citizens’ trust and for scholars interested in the outcomes of transparency and the precursors of citizens’ trust.
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.
