Does Trust Matter? An Inquiry on Citizens’ Trust in Public Institutions of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Citizen trust in public institutions is an indication of successful governance as it has often been viewed as an important element of good governance. Citizen distrust in government and its institutions considerably affects the effectiveness and efficiency of public policies and their implementation. Since the independence, Sri Lanka has been regarded as a third world democracy with a strong welfare state system in which public institutions have played pivotal role in fostering democracy and citizen trust. Nevertheless, in the recent past, citizen trust in most public institutions has been alarmingly decreasing owing to politicization of public sector, service delivery, political and bureaucratic corruption, lack of transparency, accountability, ethnic prejudice and partiality in the working of the public institutions. In this backdrop, this paper examines the level of citizen trust in selected institutions and explores factors that influence on trust. The study adopted mixed method approach to explore the problem phenomenon. The study finds that ethnic majority has more trust in public institutions than that of minority, and identity, language of administration and lack of equal representation in bureaucracy are also considerably determine level of trust citizens have in public institutions. Further, political patronage in service delivery has subverted quality of public institutions and trust, interestingly, citizens those who support and being affiliated with ruling party tend to have more trust in government. Police and village-level officers are least trusted owing to endemic corruption.