ABSTRACT
The relationship between trust and transparency is complex. Some people say that transparency is one of the most important conditions for well-placed trust. Many institutions support the idea that transparency improves the trustworthiness of the agents working within the institutions. Publicity refers to information that has already been digested and processed by a large enough fraction of the public. Transparent information is accessible in principle but may not have been processed or received by an outside agency. Publicity, on the other hand, implies knowledge or communication of information by some to some. A reasonably embedded transparency might be able to align inside and outside perspectives on relevant services and thus create some communicative overlap that could serve as a basis for improving the desired levels of trust and trustworthiness. Institutions have, in the words of Luc Boltanski, the power to say and confirm what matters.
