The Bill Please! Transparency of Legislative Website and Attitudes Towards Democracy

The project

This project experimentally examines how incomplete transparency of legislative websites affects democratic attitudes and political trust across 10 countries. 

It is funded for a period of 2 years (January 2026 - December 2027) by Sciences Po as part of the projects selected by the Scientific Advisory Board.

Project Objectives

In recent years, governments around the world have sought to increase transparency in policymaking by publishing extensive legislative data on dedicated websites. However, persistent gaps remain between the promise of transparency and its actual implementation. Incomplete or missing data on platforms designed to promote transparency may paradoxically undermine, rather than enhance, confidence in the democratic process. 

Through two cross-country survey experiments, this project aims to refine our understanding of how transparency influences distinct dimensions of political trust. 

The study spans ten countries, including both well-established democracies and partial or backsliding democracies – namely, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There is substantial variation in the accuracy and availability of information on legislative websites across those countries. The study thus uses a realistic experimental design that places subjects in concrete, information-seeking scenarios on official legislative websites.

It explores how different dimensions of political trust are influenced by variations in transparency, how country-specific perceptions of corruption and transparency affect the relationship between transparency and political trust, and whether a lack of transparency encourages increased conspiratorial thinking about politics. 

Team

• Cyril Benoît, CNRS Junior Professor, Sciences Po, CEE 
• Sebastian Thieme, Postdoctoral Researcher, Sciences Po, CEE

Find out more

This side project is stemming from two larger collaborative research projects, the Global Corruption Observatory and RESPOND – Rescuing Democracy from Political Corruption in Digital Societies.