Public Trust in Government: One More Covid-19 Casualty
Poor institutional performance, slow response to the global agenda, and increasing economic inequalities are among the main drivers causing a global decline in trust in public authorities and political leaders.
FUTURE PROOF – BLOG BY FUTURES PLATFORM
Before the outbreak of Covid-19, trust in government was already at a near-historic low in many countries. Throw poor pandemic preparation, inept emergency management and inconsistent public health messaging into the mix and, now, the public’s trust has further weakened.
The concept of “managing the message”, across all sectors of society, began eroding with the advent of the 24-hour news cycle, the rise of instant global communication and the ever-increasing power of social media. The opportunity to craft a response and get it out before an issue reaches the public has evaporated. The media demands comments and conclusions as events are unfolding, while social media posts are fired at the underinformed masses to fuel partisanship. Public relations teams and social media managers are in constant virtual trench warfare, trying to hold ground and catch out the guerrilla media manipulators to gain control of the messaging. The guerrillas appear to be winning, spreading enough doubt and distrust to prevent majority acceptance and adherence to any public programme.
Confidence in institutions, including the police, schools and health organisations, has been badly shaken by the spread of misinformation, distrust and suspicion. Deaths at the hands of police, school mask mandates and mandatory vaccinations have all sparked protests – many of them violent. Flouting of lockdown regulations by public officials has raised outrage and lowered polling numbers. As for the private sector, the public is turning a critical eye on business and industry, noting which ones put people first and which ones put profits first.
ORGANISATIONAL TRUST AND PUBLIC SECTOR: WHAT’S AT STAKE?
Without public trust, governments are unable to enforce regulations or compliance with emergency measures. Enacting budgets becomes nearly impossible, as does establishing funding amounts and justifying public taxes. Everything gets tied up in an endless partisan gridlock.
Populism and political polarisation surge, and protests turn into insurrections. Businesses are in a constant state of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) with no way of knowing what the next shake-up will be – or whether the losers will be a handful of companies or entire sectors of the economy.
THE FUTURE OF POLITICS
Can this runaway train of distrust be stopped, or even reversed? Maybe, if the right passengers onboard that train can be convinced that the government is working for them.
Levels of distrust in government vary across age, race, income and education levels, with younger, ethnic minority, poorer and less-educated members of society among those with the lowest levels of trust in government. These populations, already reeling from the economic blows of the pandemic, are often hit hard by increased taxation in regressive tax structures. Not seeing any way out of their suffering, these groups may look to oust the ineffectual by embracing populism, extremism, or even civil war.
An opening gesture by governments to improve trust should feature accountability in spending, which could go a long way towards building back organisational trust and public sector reputations for nepotism and earmarking in publicly funded contracts. Distributed ledgers (blockchain technology) could improve accountability in government spending and contracting by securely and transparently logging all transactions.
Can enough governments improve transparency and accountability in time to switch society back onto the trust track and off the route heading towards undermining or overthrowing established public authorities?
Learn more about changing dynamics of public trust in governments, and explore many other long-term societal and political changes with Futures Platform’s futurist-curated trend database.
