Trust In Public Administration Research Articles

Like a bridge over troubled water: Wellbeing and trust in governance during turbulent times

The COVID-19 pandemic extended interest in the relationships between citizens and governments in turbulent times of crises and emergencies. While the pandemic generated a critical existential threat to the lives of many, it also had a significant effect on the quality of life and on the wellbeing of even larger populations. This paper deals with the relationship between the wellbeing of citizens and three types of trust in governance (i.e. trust in political institutions, trust in public administration, trust in enforcement institutions) during the pandemic. We aim at advancing knowledge on both wellbeing and trust during crises, and more specifically on direct and indirect patterns of these important relationships. To do so, we suggest alternative models and a series of hypotheses aimed at examining them empirically. Two datasets on Israeli citizens are used. They were collected over two points in time during the heat of the pandemic and toward its decline and end (Study 1/t1; N = 1026 and Study 2/t2; N = 3024) and largely represent major sectors and ethnicities in the population. The findings generally support a positive relationship between wellbeing and trust, but more importantly indicate that during crisis, trust in public administration and enforcement institutions mediates the relationship between wellbeing and trust in political institutions. We thus argue that the public service may act as a bridge between citizens’ wellbeing and political trust. In our view, the findings testify to the complexity of the wellbeing–trust relationship, especially in challenging times. Implications and directions for future studies are suggested. Points for practitioners Trust in governance is different for various political institutions and for different public administration organizations, especially in turbulent times Civil servants should be aware of citizens’ wellbeing during crises as it affects trust in governance Citizen trust and wellbeing are significantly related in times of emergency and crises

The Role of Open Government in Maintaining Trust in Public Administration

The concept of trust has gained significance in the discourse surrounding traditional public administration, which has been questioned in various respects regarding its relationship with the public. The political, social, and economic changes that have occurred in recent times have led to numerous transformations in the unx”derstanding of public administration. It is crucial to maintain trust in relationships, and this is a topic that has been thoroughly discussed. Trust approaches are evaluated within public administration paradigms in this study. The objective of this research is to assess how government openness impacts citizens’ trust in the government. To measure the influence of open states on public trust, European social research data and data from the open government index, developed by the World Justice Project, were utilised. To investigate whether the countries’ level of open statehood alters trust in public administration, the study initially utilized the Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by the Mann-Whitney U test to identify the variance origin. The findings confirmed the positive impact of open statehood on trust.

The Role of Governance on Trust in Public Administration on the 100th Anniversary of the Republic: A Local Governance Analysis

The Republic, at its core, is a political system based on sharing, participation, and trust. Therefore, the state of the relationship between the government and the citizens is of paramount importance for the health of the system. The aim of this study is to elucidate a small part of this relationship at the local level on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of our Republic. In this context, the study attempts to analyze the impact of good governance practices on trust in public administration. This is because the level of trust that citizens have in public administration is one of the key determinants of the distance in the state-citizen relationship. Additionally, it is acknowledged that well-functioning governance mechanisms also have an impact on trust in public administration.
 The study, the impact of the governance practices of responsiveness, accountability, transparency, and participation on trust was analyzed. Data were collected from 367 citizens living in the Uşak province (Turkey) through face-to-face and online surveys. The Structural Equation Modeling analysis revealed that all four dimensions of governance had a statistically significant positive effect on citizens' trust in public administration. The lowest impact on trust was observed in the dimension of participation. As a result, it can be said that well-functioning governance mechanisms and processes are a necessity to enhance citizens' trust in public administration at the local level. Furthermore, the development of methods that encourage greater citizen participation in these mechanisms and processes will contribute to increasing trust.

공공조달계약의 체결과 이해충돌 상황

The Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest prohibits public officials from pursuing private interests in connection with the performance of their duties. The Act aims to ensure fair performance of duties, and to secure the public's trust in public administration. It was enacted and went into effect on May 19, 2022. It is not easy to find precedents in comparative law for regulations regarding conflict of interest situations. In particular, defining and determining the scope of conflict of interest involves evaluation and judgment on very comprehensive issues, such as procurement contracts. Conflicts of interest in public procurement are an area in which violations of public official duties, criminal punishment, administrative sanctions, civil suits for damages, and issues of contract validity can be complexly connected, and a systematic review of legal principles related laws and regulations.
 In France, regulations on conflict of interest were established relatively late, but judgements established a specific precedent for conflict of interest in the area of procurement contracts. Administrative court's strong will to comply with the principle of open and fair competition was revealed in that it confirmed that if a conflict of interest is recognized through judgement, it can lead to termination of concluded contract. French law cases can give a reference in relation to case analysis and precedent issues regarding the situations of conflict of interest. This paper examine French regulations on conflicts of interest focusing on public procurement contracts, and discuss the resolution of legal disputes regarding compliance with the obligation to open and fair competition in the process of concluding public procurement contracts.

Digital divide, e-government and trust in public service: The key role of education.

The Italian public administration (PA) has always had problems with slowness and inefficiency. In 2021, the Italian government made a massive investment in digitizing PA as part of an extraordinary recovery plan, with more than 200 billion euro to revitalize the country. This paper aims to investigate how educational inequalities affect the relationship between Italian citizens and PA in this phase of the digital transition. The study is based on a web survey conducted in March and April 2022 among a national sample of 3,000 citizens aged 18-64. The data shows that more than three-quarters of respondents have already used a public service at least once via an online channel. Few are aware of the reform plan, however, and more than one-third fear that the digitization of public services will make things worse for citizens. Through a regression analysis, the study confirms the centrality of the influence of education on the use of digital public services compared to the other spatial and social variables considered. Trust in PA is also correlated with education and employment status and is higher among those who have used digital public services. The survey thus highlights that the educational and cultural dimension is a crucial aspect as a lever to counter the digital divide and promote digital citizenship rights. It reveals the need to activate facilitation and accompaniment processes for citizens with less digital skills and experience who risk being excluded or penalized by the new arrangement and having their distrust toward the PA and state exacerbated.

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

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.

Odgovornost zaposlenih u javnoj upravi

The aim of every legal system founded on the rule of law that strives for the principle of legal certainty is to achieve effective liability to the highest extent possible. In the Serbian public administration, the long-term avoidance of accountability for different illegal acts has weakened the liability of employees who also do not feel they will be held accountable for their acts. They do not believe that an appropriate sanction is prescribed for this type of conduct. This is the case of the institutionalized forms of legal accountability, whose enforcement actions are regulated by law. We might assume the kind of the existing awareness about accountability in terms of moral norms and corresponding provisions of a soft law character The perspective of citizens on trust in public administration is largely neglected in the discourse of administrative ethics and accountability.

Trust in times of crisis: opportunities and pitfalls of cooperation between volunteers and local governments

During the so-called refugee crisis of 2015/16 an estimated 25% of the German population was actively engaged as volunteers. Volunteers thus constitute a group of citizens who are high stake actors in crisis management due to their personal experience and direct interaction with the local public administration. This paper scrutinizes how the interaction between volunteers and local administrations in crisis management affects volunteers’ trust in the local public administration. Following the literature on administrative crisis management and cross-sector collaboration, the paper defines relevant features of crisis management performance. Methodologically, the paper relies on regression analysis using online survey data from a snowballing sample comprising 900 volunteers who engaged during Germany’s 2015/16 migration crisis. The results show that performance perception of the local administration, and the formalization of the different volunteer organizations explain how volunteers’ trust in the public administration changes over the course of the crisis.

Explaining public officials’ opinions on blockchain adoption: a vignette experiment

Abstract Blockchain is emerging as one of the major disruptive technologies of our times. In the context of public administration, blockchain heralds major transformations of public service provision and has the potential to increase the transparency of, and citizens’ trust in, public administration and its services. However, the introduction of blockchain to public administrations means potentially changing aspects of the job performed by public officials, including their day-to-day activities and responsibilities, and even their very control over administrative processes. While some public officials may view blockchain positively as a means of improving current administrative practices, others may view it more negatively and resist it. The acceptance or otherwise of blockchain is, therefore, a fundamental issue for analysis. We conduct a vignette experiment to probe public officials’ opinions on the introduction of blockchain in the provision of public services in a local council. We follow an influential classification of blockchain configurations to analyze whether different configurations of blockchain affect public officials’ opinions toward its implementation. Results show that a more public configuration of certain aspects of the blockchain increases the likelihood that public officials will accept blockchain, while it is also associated with an increase in trust in public administration and its services.

Trust in Multi-Level Managers and Employee Extra-Role Behavior in the US Federal Government: The Role of Psychological Well-Being and Workload

Extant research on trust in public administration focuses on trust in a specific level of management, ignoring the connection of trust in different management levels and their effects on employees. Building on the trickle-down and trickle-up models, this study proposes that employee trust in senior leaders fosters their trust in direct supervisors and vice versa. Also, drawing on the job demands-resources model, we argue that trust in senior leaders and direct supervisors indirectly affects extra-role behavior through psychological well-being, and that workload moderates the above effects. Moreover, as leaders and supervisors play complementary roles, we predict that trust in senior leaders and trust in direct supervisors positively interact to enhance psychological well-being. Using the latent moderated structural model with data from the 2019 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, we find empirical support for our hypotheses. This study broadens scholarly knowledge about the connection of trust in multi-level managers and their effects on employees’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.

Issues of Measurability on the Transparency of the Administrative Procedure Among Clients

The requirement for the transparency of the administrative procedure and the expectations for this arise step by step during the relevant legislation of European countries. However, the concept of this often used adjective remains vague in many cases, making it difficult to put it into practice. However, the requirement is of great importance for modern public administration systems in the 21st century: transparency has been proven to play a major role in building and maintaining citizens' trust in public administration and public bodies. Therefore, in addition to the objective meaning of transparency, which can be explored from legislation and the relevant legislative document, it is important to use empirical methods to explore the perceptions of transparency in clients. Transparency of the administrative procedure is in many respects a subjective concept. After all, in addition to the legislation on the administrative procedure and the consistent application process, as well as their communication, it depends to a large extent on the perceptions, knowledge, information and experience of the main stakeholders, usually natural persons clients. The presentation and the related study aim to explore this sense of transparency with empirical methods and seek to make practical findings that are independent of national specificities.

Colloquy with Steven Van de Walle on trust in Public Administration

This interview with Professor Steven Van de Walle was framed by the fact that it was conducted during the lockdown caused by COVID-19, a crisis that has shown a globally shared vulnerability and that might be challenging the trustworthiness of governments. The talk starts at a conceptual level, looking at what trust in Public Administration is about. There follows an exploration of the sources of trust. Van de Walle deploys a typology to illustrate how information, rational calculus and emotions might shape a person’s judgement about whether to trust. Based on recent research evidence from cross-country comparative data, he elaborates on the issue of what matters the most for citizens when deciding to trust. He deals with several relevant current debates regarding communication research and practice: the gap between real and perceived performance, the relation to post-truth, the impact of transparency, and the challenge of dealing with distrustful citizens. One major topic is how to measure trust: methods, research designs, available data, and current challenges. He also makes some comparative considerations between trust in Public Administration and trust in other organizations such as the Church and NGOs. The final part of the interview is a reflection about how COVID-19 might be affecting citizens’ trust in government.

Institutional quality, corruption, and impartiality: the role of process and outcome for citizen trust in public administration in 173 European regions

ABSTRACT We empirically study whether citizens´ trust in public administration is influenced by the outcomes delivered by public services or by due process (administrative impartiality or absence of corruption) from a regional perspective. The paper fits a multilevel model on a unique dataset (N= 129,773) with observations nested in 173 European regions, using data from a series of pooled Eurobarometer surveys and from the European Quality of Government Index. We find that both public service outcomes and processes have a significant impact on citizens´ trust in public administration, but that process, and in particular absence of corruption is the strongest institutional determinant.

ПРОБЛЕМНЕ ПОЛЕ ФОРМУВАННЯ ТА ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ СТРАТЕГІЧНИХ КОМУНІКАЦІЙ

The general articulation of the issue andits connection with the important research and practice tasks . Analysis of the current development of information and communication, the effectiveness of communication policy in Ukraine, the level of public trust in public institutions, some reforms and social changes, the position of the state in the world competitive rankings, demands and expectations demonstrates the institutional failure of public authorities to such of varied activities. Therefore, appropriateness of this study determined an effective methodological tool for solving the problem - the restoration / formation of trust as an important strategic nonmaterial resource. The analysis of the recent publications regarding the issues this article deals with; identification of parts of the general problem that have not been previously addressed. Investigating to the formation of trust as a strategic non-material resource and efficient use of space communication thoroughly reflected in a number of scientific, sociological studies and monographs, including Bezverkhnyuk T., Bourdieu P., Castells M., Kozhemyakin O., Collis J., Luman N., Ryabtsev G., Fukuyama F. and others. However, comprehensive analysis study on improving the trust in governmental institutions, identifying the main causes and consequences of the prediction weren’t implemented. The purpose (the objective) of this article is to analyze the problem of the formation and functioning strategic communications in Ukraine due to the analysis of low level of trust in the state institutions; identify the main causes of its occurrence, as well as priority directions of effective use of communication potential and opportunities of public administration in forming a strategic trust resource. The key results and the background . The formation of trust is a strategic goal in the interaction of public authorities and society, which can only be provided by a planned and effective communication process. Knowledge, understanding and acceptance belong to the function of communication in the process of reaching consensus and confidence, whereas trust is defined as a strategic goal. An important feature of the new model of relationship between political, administrative institutions and society is the focus on defining, formulating goals and results, that is, focus on the consequences, rather than on the process, and strengthening of feedback mechanisms. An important disadvantage is the lack of certainly defined strategy in the development of the Ukrainian state, which would be supported by most of the population and which would not cause any objections. Based on the consequential analysis, conducted by the author, the main problem in the governmental institutions is an inefficient use of communication potential and opportunities of public administration, the main reasons of those are: the lack of strategic communications and effective strategic management, non-system and inconsistency of developing communication strategies, the lack of communication competences among specialists in public administration. It’s proved that defiance of such problems may lead to a threat to the national security. Conclusions and the prospects of the further research. Within the research there were determined the following priorities of effective and efficient use of the communication potential of public administration: - The institutionalization of strategic communication in the system of public administration as a system of targeted communication campaigns, fashion events aimed at reaching an agreement with all stakeholders to achieve strategic goals. - Creating an integrated system of strategic development, which involves the development of national (general) strategy Grand Strategy Forsyth using the methodology and agreement with the various sectorial and regional development strategies. - Ensuring communication activities provides professional training of civil servants in the formation and analytical work, and strategic communications for public administration. The directions abovementioned are interconnected and interrelated, they are formed strategic goals and efficient priorities of the national information space to achieve the success that will increase the level of trust in public administration

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AS A BASIS FOR PUBLIC TRUST IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES IN LATVIA

Nowadays, many public administrations are facing the low level of public trust in state authorities. It is largely due to public dissatisfaction with the activities of public administration and beliefs that public administration does not serve to the public interest. Participation in decision-making processes is one of the ways to reduce public dissatisfaction and mistrust in public administration. In order to understand the importance of public participation in public administration processes, the aim of the paper is to study trends in the transformation of public administration and society at different stages of the development of the state reform in Latvia and its impact on public trust in public administration. The following methods have been used in the research study: analysis of normative documents, an expert survey with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government representatives, as well as analysis of statistics on the implementation of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the government and NGOs. An analysis of the normative documents adopted by the Latvian government shows that the legal framework provides for wide opportunities for NGO involvement in public administration. The statistical data and opinions of NGOs and public administration experts show that there are a variety of mechanisms for increasing NGOs participation. However, the opportunities for developed participation are not conducive to public trust in the public administration, since in most cases information about the opportunities and results of participation is not reachable to the general public. Thus, it is vitally important to create an optimal model of NGOs and public administration relations for the activation of Latvian society in order to reduce the low participation and public trust in public administration.

Trust and state intervention: Results from a Swedish survey on environmental policy support

The role of trust in supporting environmental policy instruments (EPIs) has attracted increased interest in recent years. Various trust measures have often been conflated, making it unclear whether trust or distrust drives demand for EPIs. Here we investigate how trust in various actors (i.e., citizens in general, business actors, and political institutions) affects attitudes to different kinds of state intervention (i.e., push vs. pull instruments). We hypothesize that distrust, through a willingness to punish, generates demand for push policies, while trust, through a willingness to reward, generates demand for pull policies. Using survey responses from approximately 1800 Swedish college students, different trust measures were found to have different links to attitudes to state intervention: trust in public administration is a stable predictor of EPI support, whereas distrust in business actors generates stronger support for punishing instruments. We also found that preferences for push policies are associated with a willingness to punish, whereas preferences for pull policies are associated with a willingness to reward. We conclude that different trust measures should not be conflated when discussing whether trust explains attitudes to state environmental intervention.

Public service for all: How a global ethic prepares public administrators for a transnational century

ABSTRACT In this moment of populist mistrust of globalization and amid attacks on liberal values of democracy, how can we best train the next generation of public administration professionals to serve a citizenry cynical about democratic governance? The article highlights the transnational philosophical underpinnings of global ethic of public service founded on the democratic values of the rule of law and respect for human rights that are vitally important to developing effective, legitimate, and transparent skillsets that promote trust in public administration and democratic governance.

정부신뢰의 조절효과 검증 : 한국, 일본, 미국, 스웨덴 사례

There has been two major pillar of research on trust in public administration: the factors affecting and consequences of trust and the role of trust. However, little study has been done regarding the role of trust in a relation with other values in public administration. We analyze the relations between trust, accountability, performance, and discretion examining how these four values are associated with each other. Then, we explore the causal relations of trust with the other critical values―performance, accountability, and discretion. Second, we analyze what kind of moderating effects of trust on two relationships―accountability and discretion, accountability and performance―are revealed. The unit of analysis is national level and we included South Korea, Japan, the United States, and Sweden for analysis and implications using the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) survey “The role of Government 2012.” From the results, we would argue that it seems positive to expect that trust in government could play a moderating role between competing values in public practice. Second, the statistical results confirmed partially the previous theory that performance affect positively to trust in public in the national level from four selective states.

Elouise Cobell and the Indian Trust Funds: Accountability and Trust in Public Administration

U.S. government policy and jurisprudence concerning American Indian nations have long been marked by paradoxes and contradictions. The story of Cobell v. Norton, the largest class action suit ever brought against the federal government, illuminates issues that are basic to the administrative state, including accountability, trust, and the nature of sovereignty. For more than a century, administrators neglected their fiduciary responsibility for the management of Indian trust accounts. The legal doctrine of limited sovereignty failed to protect the rights and interests of Indian citizens and Indian nations. This discussion recounts a history that should be learned from rather than erased.

Disclosure on Measures to Prevent Corruption Risks: A Study of Italian Local Governments

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the characteristics of the disclosures of anticorruption measures that Italian local governments (LGs) publish to increase transparency, public accountability, and citizens’ trust in public administration. The analysis of the anticorruption plans of a sample of Italian LGs shows that this type of disclosure might be a way of repairing organizational legitimacy after an occurrence of corruption. More external directors in the governing body also increase the pressure on LG managers to publish information about anticorruption measures. Finally, larger LGs demonstrate a greater propensity to provide information on the actions implemented to mitigate corruption risks.