Public Trust in Government: Institutional Performance, Transparency and Citizen Engagement

Abstract

Public trust in government is often discussed as if it were a single attitude that governments can increase through better communication or short-term policy success. The research literature suggests a more complicated picture. Trust is a judgement about whether public institutions are likely to act competently, fairly, honestly and in ways that are reasonably responsive to citizens. It is therefore connected to institutional performance, but it is not reducible to performance alone. This article examines why citizens develop or lose trust in public institutions through a critical narrative review of established theoretical work, empirical studies and recent international evidence. It focuses on institutional performance, transparency, accountability, public participation, corruption perceptions, service delivery, digital government and crisis governance. The article proposes a conceptual framework in which trust develops through the interaction of what institutions do, how they make decisions, how openly they explain those decisions, and whether citizens have meaningful opportunities to be heard. International evidence, particularly from the OECD Trust Survey, is used to show that reliability, responsiveness, fairness, integrity and openness are closely associated with public trust, while the effects of transparency and participation are conditional rather than automatic. The article argues that public trust should be treated less as a communication outcome and more as a cumulative institutional relationship. Policy efforts are therefore more likely to be credible when they improve the everyday experience of public administration, strengthen accountability, provide usable information, and give citizens meaningful rather than symbolic opportunities to participate.