When citizens have easy and constant access to government information, that’s called government transparency. It’s vital for good governance, and citizens’ perception of the government as trustworthy.
However, many local governments suffer from a lack of transparency.
New research finds that county governments in densely populated urban areas tend to be more transparent on their official websites if their citizens have good internet access.
On the other hand, in counties with large cities where the citizens lack the ability to get online, county governments do not make enough information available to the public.
Evidence of Good Governance
Charles Menifield, a professor in the University of Missouri Truman School of Public Affairs, believes that government officials should seek to understand their populations’ levels of internet access and how it relates to other social factors in order to find ways to be more transparent to the public, and therefore be perceived as more trustworthy.
