Description
Programmes which aim to counter violent extremism (CVE) have diffused globally and have become embedded in the work of the United Nations (such as the PRR programme). These programmes often require community support and trust to ensure their effectiveness or they have received criticism for undermining trust. Many scholars have claimed that CVE programmes should be more transparent and that greater transparency would increase trust and support for the programmes. Some CVE programmes have sought to be more transparent in this assumption. However, no evidence exists on whether transparency does increase trust and support in policy - in fact, transparency literature in other policy areas would suggest otherwise. In the following paper we present several survey experiments which test the effects of policy information and decision-making transparency on support and trust in the UK's Prevent programme. We find that policy information transparency decreases trust and support in the policy, whereas communicating the rationale behind decisions can increase decision acceptance and trust. The findings will help identify how CVE programmes can become more transparent and also build community support and trust to facilitate their work.
