Longitudinal Examination of Trust in Public Administration during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Examining public trust during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic can shed light on the factors that contribute to people’s trust in public administration. This longitudinal study examines the changes in the Jordanian people’s trust in government in general and public administration in particular by administering a questionnaire online in July 2020 to 1,629 citizens in wave 1 and in July 2021 to 1,145 citizens in wave 2. On a 5-point scale, the trust in the public institutions declined from 4.44 at wave 1 to 2.46 at wave 2. There was a decline in the overall trust in the government (from 4.16 to 2.19), in the government’s performance (from 4.83 to 1.64) and in the top administrative officials (from 3.59 to 1.67). Pearson’s correlations identified the complexities associated with trust in public administration, and the hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis confirmed those complexities as well as the continual nature of trust during the pandemic. Trust at wave 1 explained 41% of the variance in trust, and when other independent variables—gender, overall government’s performance, satisfaction, success in managing the crises, confidence, personal exposure to COVID-19 and receiving public service—were added, the regression model explained around 60% of the variance in trust.