Citizen Distrust Research Articles

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

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.

Broken Trust: Dysfunctional Government and Constitutional Reform

Stephen M. Griffin has helped redefine the study of constitutional development by calling scholars’ attention to transformations in the fundamental structures and processes of governance. These changes often escape notice because they tend to occur outside the courts and without a formal announcement, yet Griffin demonstrates that to ignore them is to miss crucial features of our constitutional order and its development. His most recent book, Broken Trust: Dysfunctional Government and Constitutional Reform, continues this important project. In Broken Trust, Griffin sets out to demonstrate that a late twentieth-century decline in American citizens’ trust in government (mis)shaped America’s governing institutions and that we should understand this decline as a constitutional problem. He argues that representative government cannot operate effectively in an atmosphere of citizen distrust and that Americans’ lack of trust in the federal government is ultimately responsible for the dysfunctional condition of American politics today. In the first chapter after the introduction, Griffin joins scholars such as Sandy Levinson (author of the book’s interesting foreword) in urging Americans to overcome their instinctive veneration of the federal Constitution in order to grapple with its problems. The chapter explores four “policy disasters” (September 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 financial crisis, and rising income inequality) to demonstrate that particular features of America’s constitutional order are ultimately responsible for the government’s failure to function effectively.

Confiabilidad y validez de un instrumento que mide siete dimensiones de la percepción de seguridad en estudiantes de una universidad pública

Introducción: la administración de seguridad pública supone la instrumentación de políticas públicas que justifican la rectoría del Estado en la prevención del delito y la impartición de justicia. Sin embargo, la desconfianza ciudadana hacia la acción gubernamental se evidencia por una creciente percepción de inseguridad reportada por la literatura en siete dimensiones: territorial, nacional, pública, humana, ciudadana, privada e internauta. Objetivo: establecer la confiabilidad y la validez de un instrumento que mide la percepción de seguridad territorial, nacional, pública, humana, ciudadana, privada e internauta. Método: estudio no experimental, transversal y exploratorio con una selección no probabilística de 320 estudiantes de una universidad pública. Resultados: la confiabilidad de la escala general (alfa = 0,793) y de las subescalas territorial (alfa = 0,792), nacional (alfa = 0,709), pública (alfa = 0,785), humana (alfa = 0,782), ciudadana (alfa = 0,792), privada (alfa = 0,794) e internauta (alfa = 0,731) evidencian una consistencia interna suficiente. El factor de seguridad territorial explicó el 22% de la varianza total. A partir deparámetros de ajuste y residual ⌠χ2 = 135,34 (32gl) p = 0,054; GFI = 0,995; CFI = 0,990; RMSEA = 0,003⌡, se aceptó la hipótesis nula de relación significativa entre las dimensiones de seguridad teóricas con respecto a los factores ponderados. Conclusiones: la inclusión y medición de una dimensión de percepción de autocontrol que correlacionaría negativa y significativamente con la percepción de seguridad territorial explicaría la estructura factorial de la escala. Tal modelo se estimaría con un análisis factorial confirmatorio con mínimos cuadrados no ponderados.

Citizen Expectations and Satisfaction in a Young Democracy: A Test of the Expectancy‐Disconfirmation Model

AbstractCitizen satisfaction with public services has been shown to depend on citizens’ expectations and their perceptions of performance. If performance exceeds expectations, satisfaction is likely; if performance falls short of expectations, dissatisfaction is likely. The existing evidence on this process covers the United States and the United Kingdom. The authors generalize the idea of expectation‐driven citizen satisfaction (the “expectancy‐disconfirmation model”) theoretically and empirically to an institutional context of limited accountability and widespread citizen distrust. Using a survey of a broad cross‐section of the general adult population in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2014, this article finds support for the expectancy‐disconfirmation model in this very different context. The authors also test for an effect of the type of expectation using an embedded, randomized experiment but do not find evidence of a difference between normative and empirical expectations. Findings support the usefulness of the expectancy‐disconfirmation model in a wide range of contexts.

Consumption of public institutions’ open data by Spanish citizens

The consumption practices of Spanish citizens of open data published by public institutions are evaluated, within the context of the implementation of the Transparency Portal in Spain. Through an online survey, representative of the studied universe, and through an analysis of descriptive statistics, contingency tables and association measures for nominal variables, the degree of awareness about the availability of open data offered by public bodies are compared, their use is described, and reasons for their use are identified. The results reveal low penetration of the open data culture, and citizen distrust of the actions carried out by public institutions for the access, use, and reuse of open data, which will require a change of orientation in communication and stimulation policies.

Electoral volatility and the dynamics of electoral reform

Recent elections in Europe have shown that a context of increasing citizen distrust towards democratic institutions may lead to very high levels of electoral volatility and to the emergence of new parties. On the other hand, institutional reforms are sometimes presented as a solution to citizens’ discontent with political institutions. Focusing on a specific type of political institution ‒ electoral systems ‒ the question addressed in this study is whether high levels of electoral volatility may trigger electoral reforms. The article investigates the conditions under which reforms affecting the electoral system’s degree of openness to new parties were enacted in 25 European countries between 1945 and 2012. The findings demonstrate that volatility due to the emergence of new parties is the most powerful explanation to account for the introduction of electoral reforms, particularly those that hinder the entry of new parties into the system.

La política representativa tradicional en los tiempos de la e-democracia. Entre novedades y desafíos jurídicos

During the years of economic crisis, public disaffection with politics and especially politicians has been growing. Citizens distrust politicians who are the product of political parties, they feel that the exercise of sovereignty is increasingly remote from those democratic principles which should represent any rule of law. Although citizens continue to express their preferences through voting, the participation of citizens in political affairs practically does not exist. In this context new scenarios seem to be open. E-democracy (digital democracy, cyber democracy) is an example. This paper examines this opportunity, the parallelism between traditional representational politics and new methods of participation that work with new technologies. To do this we consider the Spanish case, which seems to be open to these types of practices. It seems appropriate to consider the question of whether representative democracy is destined to end or otherwise can be reviewed in the expectation that it will accompany new participation systems prevalently using the new technologies. Undoubtedly, this potential relationship faces different legal obstacles. Today the organizational structure of the constitution seems to prevent this reciprocity. However, the investigation will attempt to demonstrate that there is a possibility of coexistence and a possible change in the view of citizen participation vis-a-vis classical representation. Keywords: political representation, e-democracy, cyber participation, citizenship, democratic proposals.

Citizens and Transatlantic Free Trade Agreements: How to Reconcile American ‘Constitutional Nationalism’ with European ‘Multilevel Constitutionalism’?

Abstract The free trade agreements (FTAs) of the European Union (EU) aim at protecting transnational public goods (PGs) – such as a rules-based, transatlantic market – that could be progressively extended to other European and North-American FTA members and serve as a model for reforming worldwide trade rules and governance institutions. International law and governance can protect PGs more effectively if citizens are empowered as ‘democratic principals’ to hold multilevel governance institutions legally, democratically and judicially accountable for governance failures. The Lisbon Treaty established a ‘cosmopolitan foreign policy constitution’ requiring ‘protection of its citizens’, ‘strict observance of international law’ and rights-based market regulations also in the EU’s external relations. This contribution criticizes EU policies of disempowering citizens in FTAs and undermining their fundamental rights. Without respect for rule of law, the EU cannot overcome its crises of legitimacy and the distrust of citizens vis-à-vis intergovernmental EU regulations.

Citizen Expectations and Satisfaction in a Young Democracy: A Survey Experiment

Citizen satisfaction with public services has been shown to depend on citizens’ expectations and their perceptions of performance. If performance exceeds expectations, satisfaction is likely; if performance falls short of expectations, dissatisfaction is likely. The existing evidence on this process covers the U.S. and the UK. We generalize the idea of expectation-driven citizen satisfaction (the “expectancy-disconfirmation model”) theoretically and empirically to an institutional context of limited accountability and widespread citizen distrust. Using a survey of a broad cross-section of the general adult population in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2014, we find support for the expectancy-disconfirmation model in this very different context. We also test for an effect of the type of expectation using an embedded, randomized experiment, but do not find evidence of a difference between normative and empirical expectations. Our findings support the usefulness of the expectancy-disconfirmation model in a wide range of contexts.

THE FEATURES OF YOUTH PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN CURRENT SOCIO-POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

The profound social and political changes that have happeed in Ukraine in the recent years (the events of the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of the Crimea and military aggression in eastern Ukraine), made significant adjustments to life of young people, their behavior, socio-economic status and so on. Thereby the creation of favorable conditions for development and self realisation, formation of civic and national-patriotic consciousness of Ukrainian youth has become as relevant as never seen. An important step towards this perceived is understanding of the processes taking place within modern organizations and communities, doing the detailed analysis and identification of specific features of modern Ukrainian public participation of young people. The article presents the analiz of the current state, problems and possibilities of Ukrainian youth public participation in the current socio-political conditions. The author notes the changes in the nature of public participation of Ukrainian youth. The article indicates that the shares and targeted action participation is now mostly focused on peacemaking action and support of socially vulnerable groups. The author provides a list of obstacles of public participation of young people, among them: the lack of free time, the lack of faith in the possibility to change something, the lack of information about existing public initiatives, the distrust of citizens to the civil society organizations. This article describes the trends of public participation in a new and innovative schemes of social interaction via online social networks. The author analyzes the possibility of social networks as a «accumulator» of public sentiment. It expands the ability of social internet networks to influence on large-scale socio-political processes in the society.

Fearing or fearsome Ebola communication? Keeping the public in the dark about possible post-21-day symptoms and infectiousness could backfire

US quarantine announcements do not include information that there is a moderate likelihood that Ebola-exposed people might exhibit symptoms, signalling infectiousness, beyond 21 days. As a result it is possible that if and when there is media coverage in the US of a delayed-symptom case, it might create citizen distrust in public health authorities and information and cause citizens to overestimate the risk of Ebola infection. In this article we report a research study which examined whether openness about post-21-day symptoms would attenuate negative reactions. We ran two experiments with online opportunity (Amazon mTurk) samples of Americans in late October-early November 2014, between the two deaths from Ebola in the US. In these experiments we assessed the reactions of respondents who saw quantitative estimates of post-21-day-symptom likelihood (n = 1413), or were informed about post-21-day symptoms with a rationale for the 21-day period after all saw a mock news story about a US case of 30th-day symptoms (n = 425). We found in both experiments that perceived risk increased and trust declined when people learned of post-21-day symptoms, and disbelief increased that 21 days without symptoms means no Ebola infection. In Study 2, informed persons and controls changed perceived risk and trust relative to baseline; test-group participants distrusted local medical personnel less and wanted shorter quarantines compared to controls who did not receive the information. Our findings suggest that informing Americans about the small likelihood of post-21-days Ebola symptoms would not increase perceived risk and distrust, and might diminish negative reactions to the media reporting a case who developed symptoms of Ebola after 21 days. Thus, public health officials wanting appropriate public responses to potential or actual epidemics may benefit from early communication of unpleasant infectious-disease facts before events reveal them, and signal officials’ lack of preparedness for public reactions.

Citizens' distrust of government and their protest responses in a contingent valuation study of urban heritage trees in Guangzhou, China

Protest response is a common aspect of contingent valuation (CV) studies, which has attracted growing attention from scholars worldwide. Distrust of government, understood as one of the major reasons for protest response, has been prevalent across transitional China experiencing dramatic changes in its economy, society and natural environment. Citizen distrust of government would significantly hinder the efficiency and validity of the contingent valuation method (CVM) application focusing on the provision of public environmental and ecological goods in China, as a large proportion of protest responses might be induced. Hitherto little has been done to link residents’ trust in government to their environmental behaviors in developing and transitional economies like China where CVM has been increasingly applied to generate meaningful and reliable information for integrating both ecological and socioeconomic perspectives into policy decisions. This study aims to investigate the discrepancies between protest responses induced by distrust of government and non-protest responses, using the contingent valuation of heritage trees in Guangzhou as a case. The combination of a set of debriefing questions and several attitudinal questions is employed in the questionnaire. Based on logit analysis and discriminant analysis, it has been found that protestors who distrust government and non-protestors share similar salient values associated with urban heritage trees in Guangzhou, especially their distinctive historical and cultural values, in comparison with ordinary urban trees. Residents with low familiarity with heritage trees (who rarely visit sites with heritage trees, know little about management and conservation techniques, and consider present management to be ineffective) are likely to act as protesters with the “distrust of government” belief. Only if more opportunities are provided for residents to obtain access to urban heritage tree sites, more information (about urban heritage trees and other environmental and ecological goods) is disseminated, and more effective management is implemented, can better governmental trust be developed and stronger public participation and support secured. The results of this study can shed light on understanding protest responses in CV studies and improving the reliability and efficiency of CVM in China and other developing countries where a low level of trust in government prevails.

Using maternity capital: Citizen distrust of Russian family policy

During the last decade Russian politics have aimed at stimulating the birth rate, most famously by the maternity capital program. This article provides results from the first extensive study of citizen use and attitudes to this benefit and concludes that Russian women and families harbor a deep distrust of the program and Russian social policy, as it sends contradictory messages combining paternalistic and liberal trends. Many eligible mothers have not activated their capital due to various bureaucratic obstacles they encounter. Contrary to the expectations of economists and sociologists, the results indicate that middle-class families have more resources to use their capital.

The Decline of Political Trust in Spain and Portugal

This article deals with the problem of the increasing distrust in institutions in European democracies, paying special attention to countries such as Spain and Portugal, which are being severely harmed by the current economic crisis and the austerity measures imposed by supranational organizations such as the European Union and implemented by their respective national governments. Contrary to the purely political-economic paradigm, the present article, based on panel survey data gathered during the years 2011 and 2012 in Spain and Portugal, shows that this deterioration is due principally to the negative perception of the political responsiveness of representative institutions and aggravated by the increasing perception of political corruption. Multilevel governance and the present economic crisis are challenging representative institutions, but their functioning and elite misbehavior during the crisis are the main explanations of increasing citizen distrust in such institutions.

Três caminhos para a democracia radical

O artigo consiste em uma análise da experiência da democracia indiana, que remonta às tentativas de torná-la mais democrática. Para tal empenho, divide a questão em três níveis temáticos: a luta armada (a presença da guerrilha maoista na Índia Central), a primazia da esfera cívica sobre a política e a dominância da esfera política sobre a legal. Todos se mostrarão incapazes de radicalizar a democracia indiana. A principal questão sublinhada no artigo repousa no fato de que as três tentativas acabam por propor, de modos distintos, a negação da política e, no limite, da própria democracia, duramente conquistada na Índia em sua revolução da independência de 1947. Ao mesmo tempo, chama a atenção para dois aspectos fundamentais. De um lado, possui bases reais a generalizada descrença dos cidadãos na capacidade do Estado de equacionar e encaminhar soluções sobre os graves problemas econômicos, políticos, sociais, éticos, que afetam a maioria da população da Índia. De outro, somente a retomada da política democrática restauraria os elos perdidos da revolução nacional.

Political Trust, Efficacy and Engagement in Challenging Times: An Introduction

One of the most striking patterns in contemporary studies of political attitudes is the increasing pervasiveness of citizen distrust and disengagement from the political process. It is a pattern th...

A comparison of Chinese and the U.S. police cadets’ occupational attitudes

While police attitudes and behaviors have been the subject of a large number of studies conducted since the 1960s, very few studies had assessed Chinese police officers’ work-related attitudes and compared them with those of the U.S. police cadets. Using survey data collected from 263 Chinese and American police cadets, the research empirically tested whether Chinese and American police cadet attitudes differed across four attitudinal dimensions: aggressive patrol, order maintenance, legal restrictions, and distrust of citizens. Bivariate and multivariate results showed that Chinese cadets displayed occupational outlooks that distinguished them from their American counterparts. Chinese cadets supported aggressive patrol and were more distrustful of citizens than their American counterparts. American cadets were more favorable of order maintenance activities and more accepting of legal restrictions compared with Chinese cadets. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Accounting for Variation in Distrust of Local Police

This paper tests a variety of explanations for variation in distrust of local police in the US. As with other attitudes toward the police, there is a substantial race gap in distrust of the police. Our analysis is based upon citizen survey data from 33 cities and data on policing characteristics and the city context for those same cities. It reveals that individual‐level factors representative of a psychological model are of substantial importance in accounting for variation in distrust of the police. City‐level attributes tapping differences in police performance are also important predictors of citizen distrust of the police, even once individual‐level attributes are controlled; and there are important racial differences in the impact of these police performance variables as well, resulting in a largely full accounting of the initial race gap.

GLOBALIZATION AND NATIONAL IDENTITY: THE ASPECTS OF POLITICAL ETHICS

The article shows that globalization makes the largest influence on three significant guarantees of national identity (and freedom) preservation: language, economic and political independence. The possibilities to preserve and to consolidate freedom are discussed as well. The first theme analyzed is the worship and promotion of language, cultural and national values which mean not only safety but also openness and accessibility for other cultures (interchange). The second is the renunciation of servant position in relation with the European Union, the self‐spread and defence of economic interests. The third is more active defend of political interests in the European Union in search for the partners whose interests seceded to coincide with ours. The fourth is the implementation of the political self‐government principle, which should be grounded on the striving to preserve the national identity and culture which supply civil society. This way the gap between authorities and inhabitants decreases, it diminishes the distrust of citizens in authorities and it increases responsibility and accountability of authorities to the people who elected them. It is hoped that everything above mentioned would form more favourable environment for national self‐awareness and freedom to spread and grow strong as well.

A Comparison of Occupational Attitudes between Taiwanese and American Police Officers

This study examines attitudinal differences between Taiwanese and American police officers. Data used in this research were collected from two Taiwanese cities, Taipei and Kaohsiung, and two American cities, Indianapolis and St Petersburg. Occupational attitudes are assessed along four dimensions: order maintenance, community building, selective enforcement and distrust of citizens. The results indicate that, compared with their American counterparts, Taiwanese officers are more likely to support community building and distrust of citizens and less likely to favour selective enforcement. Taiwanese and American officers, however, do not differ much in their attitudes toward order maintenance. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.