Trust is essential for effective policy implementation and service delivery. Trust in government affects investment decisions and levels of productivity from the private sector, influences citizens’ engagement and their demand for better public services, and impacts our social cohesion as a whole. Who do citizens trust? In this blog, you’ll find a summary of the Global Trust Worthiness Index 2022 focusing on citizens’ trust in civil servants, government ministers, and politicians.
Who do citizens trust?
According to the Global Trustworthiness Index 2022, doctors, scientists, and teachers are considered the most trustworthy professions globally. If you think of any ordinary women or men, 38% of people consider them trustworthy. Trustworthiness lowers to 25% for civil servants, and it’s even lower for government ministers (16%) and politicians generally (12%). Overall, more people distrust civil servants (35%) than they trust us (Ouch!).
Trust in civil servants varies across countries and regions
Latin America is the region with the lower levels of trust in civil servants (14%), slightly higher than trust in government ministers (12%), and 67% higher than trust in politicians (8%). Latin America is a region with low levels of trust overall that has only been declining over the years. Asia shows the highest levels of trust in civil servants (32%), 68% higher than the trust in government ministers (19%), and more than double the trust in politicians (15%).
Citizens trust civil servants more than government ministers and politicians
In all countries, citizens trust civil servants more than politicians. South Africa, Spain, and Hungary show the biggest gaps in trust among these two groups. On the contrary, Peru, Mexico, and Argentina show the lowest differences. Trust in civil servants is as low as trust in politicians, around 10%. This is consistent with a region where trust in government overall has been declining over the last years to around 27%.
Except for Mexico, Peru, and Poland, where government ministers are more trustworthy than civil servants (25% higher from an already low 10% on average), citizens trust civil servants more than government ministers. Countries with a more institutionalized civil service seem to be more trustworthy for citizens.
A closer look at the UK: Civil servants’ trust increases over time
Looking at the UK specifically, trust in civil servants has been improving since 1983. This contrasts with trust in politicians and government ministers which has declined over time.
What do citizens want? How do citizens think public servants should behave?
What do you think it is? Does your answer change if you think about what you would value from the person helping you obtain your driver’s license?
A recent study surveyed a representative sample of 1,239 citizens from the United States, Netherlands, and South Korea to find out what citizens want from civil servants. It’s an interesting study that asks specifically about civil servants and not the government in general.
Contrary to the literature, and frankly my expectations, the study found that the top three universal values that citizens desire from civil servants are serviceability, responsiveness, and dedication. This is consistent across age groups, sex, and education levels. Citizens want civil servants to be responsive to their questions, provide them with proper service, and be dedicated to their work. This perhaps has to do with the fact that for many citizens their image of a civil servant is the people with which they interact more often. Such as when you go to get your driver’s license.
The trend is similar for the three countries in the study, but there are values more appreciated in some countries than in others, which are also a reflection of the public administrative traditions in each country. US citizens expect public servants to be experts who will be honest with them, while Dutch citizens expect them to be impartial, and South Korean citizens expect them to be persons of high moral conduct.
Source: Neo et al. (2021).
Civil servants’ trustworthiness is an asset for the government
Civil servants play a key role in government. The fact that citizens trust civil servants more than they trust government ministers and politicians could be an opportunity to strengthen their relationship for the common good. I’ve talked about how civil servants and politicians think differently about policy and how to close this gap before. I just want to emphasize that politicians should be savvier about tapping into the knowledge, expertise, and institutional memory that civil servants have. Politicians should use that invaluable talent to implement policies that improve people’s lives effectively.
