Transparency-Enabling Systems for Open Governance: Their Impact on Citizens’ Trust and the Role of Information Privacy

Several governments and citizens embrace information systems that are designed to enable transparency of public expenses and discourage corruption in the public sector. The objective of this paper is to examine the capacity and value of information systems designed to enhance transparency, from a citizens’/users’ perspective. Our purpose is to address research questions associated with the actual impact of transparency-enabling systems and openness on citizens’ trust, as well as on uncertainty towards governmental policies and actions. We also explored the impact of privacy requirements and personal data protection regulations on the system and citizens’ willingness to access public data. To the best of our knowledge, these are largely unexplored issues in the related literature. Our study involves the design of a web survey and the execution of an empirical study with citizens who have used such a system in Greece. In particular, we focused on the Greek system ‘Diavgeia’, which is the national transparency and anti-corruption system.