The impact of red tape on citizen satisfaction

Red tape is one of the most often-mentioned nuisances of citizens about government. However, there is a dearth in red tape research focusing on citizens. Therefore, the primary goal of this article is to analyze the effect of red tape on citizen satisfaction. The secondary goal is to go beyond testing a linear relationship between red tape and citizen satisfaction by examining individual factors that may moderate this relationship. In order to analyze the red tape-satisfaction relationship, we have designed an experiment in which 179 subjects participated. Experiments are still relatively rare in public administration, but are increasingly seen as a rigorous and useful method for theory testing and development. We found that red tape has a strong negative effect on citizen satisfaction, and that this effect is weaker when citizens have high knowledge of political processes. We conclude with implications and a future research agenda

Transparency of local public decision-making: towards trust or demystification of government. Paper

Online available minutes of the local council offer the opportunity to look behind the scenes of local government decision-making. But will this transparency, as promised, lead to higher levels of trust or will people get disenchanted by the incrementalism and ‘muddling through’ of the council? 156 people participated in an experiment to examine this question. These participants were randomly assigned to three groups and were given varying amounts of information about council minutes on a municipal website. The minutes were concerned with public decisionmaking about a policy plan to combat air pollution. Results indicate that people who used transparency, are significantly more negative regarding perceived competence of the council. Comparing a low and a high level of transparency shows that when people use transparency, the relationship is mediated by the credibility of the information. Also, knowledge about the decision-making process appears to cause a shift in judgment criteria. People with much knowledge are inclined to base their judgment of perceived competence on this knowledge and less on information credibility. Giving information about the decision-making process is seen as a condition sine qua non with regard to perceived honesty as this remains unaffected. Hence, people expect the local council to be transparent, but in the end there seems to be a gap between public expectations of rational decision-making whilst the reality that transparency discloses is much more chaotic and reveals public decision-making as ‘muddling through’

Transparency and trust. An experimental study of online disclosure and trust in government

Transparency has been trumpeted by many as the key to trust in government. The assumption is that if government organisations open up and show the public what decisions are made, how they are made and what the results are, people will automatically have more trust in government. But does transparency really lead to more trust? Or will it only provide critical citizens with more information to blame government again and again for small mistakes? Transparency and Trustexamines the effects of transparency on trust in a government organisation. By using an experimental method this study moves beyond normative or correlational research on transparency. In doing so, causal inferences regarding the relation between transparency and trust are allowed. Several objects of transparency and dimensions of information are being put to the test in three experiments. The experiments show that transparency is merely a ‘hygiene factor’: it does not contribute to higher levels of trust and it can even lead to lower levels of trust if people are disappointed with the degree to which government is transparent. This conclusion challenges current overly optimistic assumptions concerning the effect of transparency on trust

Linking transparency, knowledge and citizen trust in government: An experiment

Declining citizen trust in government is an important driver for NPM-style reforms. Increasing people’s knowledge by providing factual knowledge about government performance outcomes is seen as an important way of increasing citizen trust in government. Does this promise hold or is knowledge about performance outcomes not that important? Two rivalling hypotheses are being investigated. One proposition postulates a link between knowledge and trust, whereas the alternative hypothesis borrows from social-psychological research arguing that subconscious and affective cues are more important. In order to investigate this question, this article presents the results of an experiment (N = 658) investigating the effect of performance outcome transparency on citizen trust in a specific government organization. Four groups visited different websites with varying degrees of transparency and performance outcome. The results demonstrate that the link between transparency and trust in a government organization is determined by a mix of knowledge and feelings. Further, the overall effect of transparency is limited. Pre-existing and fundamental ideas about what government does and whether it is benign or not are far more determining than a single experience with a government organization. This article concludes that knowledge about performance outcomes is only part of the link between transparency and trust, and that more realistic views about transparency’s effects should be developed. Points for practitioners Transparency is generally hailed by many as the key to trust in government. This study shows that the magnitude of transparency on citizens’ trust in government is often exaggerated as most people have pre-existing, fundamental beliefs about government which are only marginally influenced by transparency. However, transparency can contribute to maintaining existing trust levels through a mix of people’s cognition and feeling about government. Transparency is necessary, yet professionals in public management and administration should develop realistic expectations about what transparency can really achieve for trust in government