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Abstract
Although policy transparency is praised highly to promote citizen compliance, it sometimes loses its effect in practice due to the lack of scientific design. To better exploit policy transparency, this study examined how the usability of policy transparency promotes citizen compliance, and the role of perceived benefit and descriptive social norms in this mechanism. The results of an online survey experiment conducted in the urban renewal policy domain revealed that, in the implementation of the house expropriation policy, easy-to-understand policy transparency encourages citizen compliance better, since it promotes more perceived benefits. Furthermore, descriptive social norms were found to influence the way perceived benefits promote citizen compliance; more in detail, negative norms were found to increase, and positive norms to decrease, the role of perceived benefit, eventually influencing the effectiveness of policy transparency. This research is a breakthrough for the effectiveness of policy transparency, emphasizing the role of perceived benefit and descriptive social norms in policy compliance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Esaiasson, “Will Citizens Take No for an Answer?”; Porumbescu et al., “Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?”; Liu and Xu, “Collaborative Governance.”
2 Cucciniello et al., “25 Years of Transparency Research”; Grimmelikhuijsen, “Linking Transparency, Knowledge and Citizen Trust”; Hood and Heald, Transparency: The Key to Better Governance?; Porumbescu, “Linking Transparency.”
3 Gao and Yu, “Public Governance Mechanism”; Balla and Xie, “Consultation as Policymaking Innovation”; Chen and Aklikokou, Relating e-Government Development.”
4 Cucciniello et al., “25 Years of Transparency Research”; O’Neill, “Transparency and the Ethics of Communication,” in Transparency.
5 Grimmelikhuijsen, “Linking Transparency, Knowledge and Citizen Trust.”
6 O’Neill, “Transparency and the Ethics of Communication,” in Transparency; Etzioni, “Is Transparency the Best Disinfectant?”
7 Gerber and Rogers, “Descriptive Social Norms and Motivation to Vote”; Hassell and Wyler, “Negative Descriptive Social Norms and Political Action”; Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge.
8 Porumbescu et al., “Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?”; Cucciniello et al., “25 Years of Transparency Research”; Im et al., “Internet, Trust in Government, and Citizen Compliance.”
9 Grimmelikhuijsen, “Linking Transparency, Knowledge and Citizen Trust.”
10 Grimmelikhuijsen et al., “The Effect of Transparency on Trust in Government.”
11 Gaber, “Lies, Damn Lies… and Political Spin.”
12 Porumbescu et al., “Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?”
13 Cucciniello et al., “25 Years of Transparency Research.”
14 Porumbescu, “Linking Transparency.”
15 O’Neill, “Transparency and the Ethics of Communication,” in Transparency; Etzioni, “Is Transparency the Best Disinfectant?”
16 Dawes, “Stewardship and Usefulness.”
17 Mansbridge, ““Selection Model” of Political Representation.”
18 de Jong, “Cognitive Load Theory.”
19 Sweller, “Cognitive Load Theory, Learning Difficulty, and Instructional Design”; Paas et al., “Cognitive Load Theory and Instructional Design.”
20 Rennekamp, “Processing Fluency and Investors’ Reactions”; Whittlesea, “Illusions of Familiarity.”
21 Halpern, Inside the Nudge Unit.
22 Porumbescu et al., “Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?”
23 Halpern, Inside the Nudge Unit.
24 Battaglio et al., “Behavioral Public Administration Ad Fonts”; Xiong and Li, “Industrial Ecology and Local Citizenship”; Yang et al., “Enlisting Citizens”; Zhuang, “Rules Consciousness or Rights Consciousness?”; Gui and Yang, “Viewing Persistent Individual Complainants in China”; Liu et al., “Do Citizen Participation Programs”; Tang and Côté, “How Large-Scale Land Protests Succeed in China”; Whiting, “Land Rights, Industrialization, and Urbanization.”
25 Lee and Li, The Value of Internal Communication.”
26 Porumbescu et al., “Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?”; Ho and Cho, “Government Communication Effectiveness and Satisfaction”; Thomsen and Jakobsen, “Influencing Citizen Coproduction.”
27 Lupia, “Shortcuts Versus Encyclopedias”; Mettler, The Submerged State; Nye, “In Government We Don’t Trust.”
28 Lupia, “Shortcuts Versus Encyclopedias.”
29 Porumbescu et al., “Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?”; Bullock and Rodgers, “Coercion to Compliance.”
30 Braithwaite and Makkai, “Trust and Compliance.”
31 Murphy, “Trust Me, I'm the Taxman.”
32 Bolzendahl and Coffé H, “Are 'Good’ Citizens 'Good’ Participants?”
33 Guo and Ren, “When It Is Unfamiliar to Me.”
34 Ho and Cho, “Government Communication Effectiveness and Satisfaction.”
35 Chung and Kim, “Competition, Economic Benefits, Trust, and Risk Perception.”
36 Yitzhaki, “Income Tax Evasion.”
37 Schmolders, “Survey Research in Public Finance”; Spicer and Lundstedt, “Understanding Tax Evasion.”
38 Gerber and Rogers, “Descriptive Social Norms and Motivation to Vote”; Wenzel, “Motivation or Rationalisation?”; Reno et al., “The Transsituational Influence.”
39 Kahneman, “A Perspective on Judgment and Choice.”
40 Banerjee, “A Simple Model of Herd Behavior.”
41 Kahneman, “A Perspective on Judgment and Choice.”
42 Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge; Halpern, Inside the Nudge Unit.
43 Wenzel, “Motivation or Rationalisation?”; Reno et al., “The Transsituational Influence.”
44 de Vries et al., “Trust Related Dynamics in Contested Land Use.”
45 Banerjee, “A Simple Model of Herd Behavior.”
46 Gerber and Rogers, “Descriptive Social Norms and Motivation to Vote.”
47 Ibid.; Wenzel, “An Analysis of Norm Processes.”
48 Cialdini et al., “A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct.”
49 Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge.
50 Hassell and Wyler, “Negative Descriptive Social Norms and Political Action.”
51 Mansbridge et al., “Positive Theory and Voice and Equality”; Downs, “An Economic Theory of Democracy.”
52 Liu and Xu, “Collaborative Governance”; Agbola and Jinadu, “Forced Eviction and Forced Relocation in Nigeria”; He and Wu, “China’s Emerging Neoliberal Urbanism.”
53 Liang and Liu, “Establishing Proper Land Acquisition Procedures”; Liu et al, “Procedural Justice Prior to Monetary Compensation.”
54 Jacoby and Kai, “Interactions Do Not Only Tell Us When.”
55 Baron and Kenny, “The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction.”
56 Imai et al., “Unpacking the Black Box of Causality.”
57 Jacoby and Kai, “Interactions Do Not Only Tell Us When”; Bor, “Evolutionary Leadership Theory and Economic Voting.”
58 Sherman and Cohen, “The Psychology of Self‐Defense.”
59 Imhoff and Erb, “What Motivates Nonconformity?”
60 Topolinski and Strack, “Motormouth: Mere Exposure Depends.”
61 Greenberg et al., “Psychological Defense in Anticipation of Anxiety.”
62 Rennekamp, “Processing Fluency and Investors’ Reactions”; Whittlesea, “Illusions of Familiarity.”
63 Porumbescu et al., “Can Transparency Foster More Understanding and Compliant Citizens?”
64 Ibid.; Grimmelikhuijsen et al., “The Effect of Transparency on Trust in Government”; Gaber, “Lies, Damn Lies… and Political Spin.”
65 O’Neill, “Transparency and the Ethics of Communication,” in Transparency; Etzioni, “Is Transparency the Best Disinfectant?”
66 Yitzhaki, “Income Tax Evasion.”
67 Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge; Battaglio et al., “Behavioral Public Administration Ad Fonts”; Kahneman, “A Perspective on Judgment and Choice.”
68 Bless and Burger, “Assimilation and Contrast in Social Priming.”
69 Ibid.
70 Kenrick and Gutierres, “Contrast Effects and Judgments”; Srull and Wyer, “Role of Category Accessibility.”
71 Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge.
72 Ibid.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Bingsheng Liu
Bingsheng Liu is a professor in School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University.
Siqi He
Siqi He is a PhD candidate in School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University.
Sen Lin
Sen Lin is a PhD candidate in Department of Politics, University of Exeter.
Jinfeng Zhang
Jinfeng Zhang is an associate professor in School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University.
Bin Xue
Bin Xue is an associate professor in School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University.