Internet, Trust in Government, and Citizen Compliance

Abstract

The decline of trust in government contributes to a climate of "political malaise," and leads to great challenges for any government concerned with meeting the public's demands and expectations. Starting from the premise that e-government and e-participation are desirable developments initiated by governments via a top-down approach, this paper explores the opportunities, if any, available to citizens to utilize the internet to initiate bottom-up channels of participation and communication. We explore the extent to which the time that people spend on the internet affects the public's trust in the government and/or the degree of compliance with government policies, as compared to the influence of the traditional, offline, mass media modalities, such as newspapers. The results of the analyses suggest that the more time individuals spend on the internet, the lower their degree of trust in government and lower level of citizen compliance.

Internet, News, and Political Trust: The Difference Between Social Media and Online Media Outlets

“…Internet use seems even damaging. Norris (2011) finds that it is associated with lower democratic satisfaction, while Im et al (2014) attest that citizens who spend more time on the web display a lower degree of trust in government, even though this negative effect is moderated by access to governmental websites.…”

Mobile phones, smartphones, and the transformation of civic behavior through mobile information and connectivity

“…Following Putnam's (1995) widely discussed analysis of the corrosive effect of television, studies have reported on the decrease in social capital and political trust that may be fostered by different types of media technology (e.g. Im et al, 2014;Calenda and Meijer, 2009). In other research on the negative effects of the Internet, answers have suggested that the Internet may make citizens more cynical of government, especially in less democratically successful countries (Bailard, 2014;Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 2002), or that the internet consolidates the political dominance of class elites, thus excluding others from avenues of civic engagement (Schlozman et al, 2010).…”

Trust in e-participation

“…A study in Korea analysed the implications of Internet usage on trust in government [14]. Im et al draw a negative relation from internet usage in general towards trust in government, but they also argue that the usage of e-government could "reduce the negative impact of the Internet on trust in government" [14, p.16].…”

“…However, design principles guiding the development of trustworthy e-participation tools are not studied. x Im et al [14] x (x) Kim & Lee [15] x Uslaner & Brown [41] x (x) Wang et al [42] x…”

“…[6,10,14,15,37,40,41,44]). Thereby, distinct stakeholder perspectives and distinct trust perceptions are to be considered; e. g. trust of citizens that their voice will be heard and has an impact, or trust of decision makers and public authorities that participants take participation seriously.…”