Cross-Country Heterogeneity in Government Transparency and Citizens’ Political Efficacy: A Multilevel Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Using cross-country data from the Citizenship database of the 2004 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and relying on multilevel mixed-effects modeling, we investigate the link between government transparency and citizens’ external political efficacy. Results indicate that transparency enhances the perception of institutions’ responsiveness to citizens’ actions, but also highlight that this effect is mediated by citizens’ level of education. In particular, while for better educated people the magnitude of government transparency’s effect on citizens’ external efficacy is substantial, the same effect is negligible for less educated citizens who appear to be “lost in transparency.”