Is Restoring Trust in our Governments possible?
Jul 05
![TRUSTimages[1]](http://www.dmavros.gr/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/TRUSTimages1.jpg "TRUSTimages[1]")
PART II
I must apologize for being so late coming back to the second part of my last post where I promised to deal with the low trust for our governments and possible remedies to this situation.
A simple review of the information available from surveys around the world makes one thing very clear. Citizens don’t trust their governments and their politicians and the levels of trust have dropped to new all time lows.
Attitudes and trust in government in the US
Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days. A recent Pew Research Center survey reveals a multitude of conditions associated with distrust in government –“ a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials”.
Citizens in the US don’t want an activist government to deal with the nation’s major problems. What they demand is for government to reform and its powers curtailed with the exception of greater regulation of major financial institutions, as well as more government control over the economy. The graph below illustrates changes in the level of satisfaction with the state of the nation and trust in government over the past 32 years. As we will see later a very similar trend behaviour is exhibited in Greece.
Europe and the special case of Ireland
The latest Edelman Trust Barometer, highlights that in contrast to other European countries, Ireland is experiencing a profound and continuing trust crisis. Trust in government and business in Ireland is the lowest in Europe with the possible exception of Greece, with business falling from 38% in 2009 to just 31% in this year’s survey. This is against a global average of 50%. Government (or better the political process) scores a bit better but with trust levels plummeting to an all time low of 28% from 31%, against a global average of 49%. Trust in media and NGO’s has also fallen, but to a lesser extent.
According to the survey, the findings show that Irish people have the lowest level of trust in politics and business in the 22 countries surveyed. Conversely, countries such as the US, Sweden and France experienced a small increase in levels of trust, further underlining a deep institutional scepticism in Ireland. Ireland was the only country surveyed that experienced declines in trust across all four institutions, business, government, media and NGOs. According to the survey “Ireland is experiencing a trust crisis which is different to the experience in other countries. Our scepticism is deep rooted and pervasive. While other countries are beginning to see increasing levels of institutional trust as their economies creep out of recession, we in Ireland have lost confidence in more institutions than ever before.
The recent case of Greece
The recent financial crisis in Greece lead to the involvement of the IMF in the economic affairs of the country. Severe measures were undertaken with profound effects in the life of the people. Such measures included reductions in pensions, age limits, cut offs in salaries, steep increases in taxes both direct and indirect, further taxes on real estate property to mention just a few. Although the measures are extreme, the people of Greece realize that given the situation these measures were to a great extent necessary. However this necessity did not reduce their feelings of disappointment which reached an all time high of 70,1% the highest since 1988. Other words that describe the mood of the Greeks are:
anger 57,9%,
fear 49,2%
shame 37,3%,
defeat 16,4%
Source: Bi-annual survey TRENDS of MRB Hellas
The latest measurement of TRENDS (June 2010), reveals that citizens in Greece when asked “how are things going in your country?” 91,1% answered badly or very badly and only 0,6% said good or very good, thus producing a negative index of -90,5% the lowest since 1989 when the index was -73%. This mood is also reflected in their answers to the question “which party can best deal with the country’s problems?” The socialist party in power gets just 30% and the opposition party only 20,3%. The answer “no party” collects an overwhelming 42,2% compared to a mere 15,7% in May 2004.
So, let’s summarize our thoughts. All evidence indicates ( GLOBESCAN Survey) that consumers around the world demand from business to be sincere, trustworthy, transparent and responsible, if they are to restore their damaged reputation and trust. In other words consumers concentrate on the concept of corporate citizenship and transparency. That’s why a solid CSR strategy is absolutely necessary for business.
In their role as citizens of their country the same people demand from their governments and politicians the exact same things. They demand from them to be honest and speak the truth and to give them hope for the future. However, there is a catch here. Hope by itself is not enough. People want hope which is based on firm foundations, will be sustainable and will be explained to them of how it will get them through the difficult and sometimes brutal changes they are experiencing in their everyday life.
Only then, the people will begin to believe again in their leaders and will be willing to contribute to their country’s efforts. `
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Jul 06 at 23:46
Yes! And essential. Read Charlene Li’s latest book Open Leadership for an excellent example of how to do this.
Jul 08 at 01:32
Sergei Dovgodko • During economic instability trust to the institutions erodes. Perhaps improvements in the economy would change the trend.
In any rate, if the government can “walk the talk” (in any direction), its credibility would improve. That is probably true even if the living standards get worse during the walk.
Jul 08 at 01:44
Nathaniel Hansen commented
“Yes it is possible to reverse this trend. Transparency IS a growing phenomenon for all to contend with. In fact, taking the bull by the horns in terms of entering transparent social eco-systems is an ESSENTIAL next step in brand evolution. Leadership in an era of social networks and social business require an education and understanding of customer-centric vs. product-centric business. There is no cleverness in poor customer service and the cool factor in Opaque Exclusivity is gone. Transparency and Inclusivity is the new cool thing. Brands, personalities and companies that are hospitable, generous and welcoming will win. Those that are not will lose (period).”
Jul 08 at 01:53
Josh Cobden
Vice President at Environics Communications
Most reputations can be repaired over time (e.g. Perrier) but my sense is a solid CSR strategy could accelerate the process. But it still won’t happen overnight, and part of that strategy needs to include listening to critics and demonstrating that you are acting on what you hear. Obviously BP will be a case study for this. In fact, it would be a great PhD thesis to measure their reputation now, track what CSR activities they undertake (if any) and how this affects their reputation 6 months, 1 year, 3 years and 5 years from now.
Jul 10 at 16:17
The new role of the Government as an interactive platform:
1. The Government as a process
2. The Government as a provider
3. The Government as a partner
4. The Government as a protector
5. The Government as a peacekeeper
These roles have to be implemented into the Public Governance system, in order to gain trust again. A more “Citizen-oriented” approach is the line the Greek, and every other government, should take in consideration.
Transparency is a useful tool for gaining trust back, but its orientation must be directed from grassroots! Citizens active participation in Public Affairs and their involvement in decision making is the key action for enabling trust in Government.
Without Citizens there isn’t Government, if we understand this we are a step forward.
Let’s start with studying our ancestors and the Pnyx model of Democracy.
Jul 11 at 14:58
Hi Dimitris,
I guess you’re right and there are several roots to that.
On economic, I think the main root is the de-connection between economic and real life. It is always surprising to see financial funds investing mainly in financial funds… but deeper than that is the short term approach. When investors only look to 2 years return, at most 5, it is becoming much shorter than the insight of common people. You don’t trust someone you can’t rely on i the coming years, there is no reason you would trust a company acting that way. That’s why in my opinion the time factor is so important in every CSR approach.
Your second topic is about effect of social media. It is actually effect of Internet. Internet is a network and build connection. But it is a network with no center. Thus connection are much wider than with an other network. It would have been very unlikely to chat together with the previous network… Connected people talk. The second consequences of Internet is everybody can write on Internet, which was nit the case with previous information channel (only journalist and politics were “allowed” to talk. Thus more people think, write, comments. There are more in many minds than in few, so investigation on what is actually done is deeper, expectancies too.
BR
Pierig
Posted by Pierig Vezin
Jul 11 at 15:00
Yes, restoring the trust and confidence in the US Government is easily possible. But it will take act of Congress. Or should i say ACTIONS of Congress (not legislation) to make this happen in a psoitive way. here are the beginning steps to the journey to regain TRUST in our govt: 1) read and practice THE Ten Commandments in the Bible, and 2) Live by, use, and act by the present Constitution of the United States Of America, and 3) In God We Trust (should be a belief and not a slogan, and allowable in our buildings, schools, and throughout our freedem society), 4) allow freedom of religons without prejudice, but make sure that those in religious power are adhering to the laws and accepted practices of any business, social, civic, political leaders in the USA, and 5) consider anything ILLEGAL TO BE ILLEGAL (until it is changed by new laws) and enforce the national and state laws to the fullest. Maybe people will, therefore, respect our govt and also want to proivde it strong support and personal volunteerism.
Posted by Ronald Swift
Jul 11 at 15:01
Sally-Ann Huson has sent you a message.
It’s an interesting question and one we are currently observing here in Australia with an overnight change in Prime Ministers from Rudd to Bishop. The first female PM ever here in Australia. The thing is she is in her honeymoon period and I think her actions will either build the truct back in the government or break it. SO far she has resolved the moning tax issue a huge briedge of Trust to the mning resources community that will now back her. Currently the big issue on the table is the Asylum seekers and “Boat People” what she does by THursday this week will build TRust with her Australian Public. It does seem after all Actions ARE louder than words!
Jul 11 at 15:04
Acceptance of damage once established should be part of CSR strategy. This will lead companies to adhere strategy in letter and sprit.
Posted by Sanaullah Shaikh
Jul 11 at 15:05
I think that here in Greece, politics and political world must interact and merge more into the PPP and learn from Best Practices and Case Stusies from Private sector and to adapt and adopt them into the Public Administration Management. Positivness and high trends in merge management has been recorded in almost every country which adapted and adopted this new business framework.
This I have to underline again, is my target and scope in the new position appointed a few weeks ago here @Connective, GSR, and I think that more than ever the Greek scenario is ready for this type of action and management. First Step : Branding the government products!
Thank you
Panayotis Tzinis
Jul 11 at 15:11
Read you article – it was very interesting and informative.
Right now I’m seeing the US elections this November setting up much like they did in 1994 where previously the Democrats in power pushed rather hard for an agenda after the 1992 election based on interests from their more liberal wing of their party only to take it on the chin the following 1994 mid-term election. In 1994, the elections brought into power Newt Gingrinch and a group of rather conservative Republicans that forced the Clinton administration back to the middle of the political views in order to get anything done in the rest of that administration. Looks like the Tea Party candidates of the Republican Party will likely force a similar review of priorities in Washington after this November 2010 election.
Roger Botterbusch
Jul 11 at 15:16
How could people possibly trust the same politicians who actually led us into these dire straits? We don’t simply need new politicians, we need young fresh minds. Notice, I’m talking about minds, not age! Because there are young people in the parliament who think older than a disgruntled retired public servant.
But then again, this is simply a reflection of our culture. The land that gave birth to all these fine words ending in -cracy, like meritocracy, is now killing them. We are the ones voting for all these good-for-nothing politicians. Not because they will do good to the country, but because they promise to do good to us as individuals…
Posted by Christos Dokos
Jul 11 at 15:17
Milton Papadakis has sent you a message.
Nothing impossible!
For sure governments that will go out and (a) set directional priorities (b) commit on tactical objectives (KPIs) & expected gains along the road / set deadlines and an objective measurement mechanism to report publicly on those KPIs, will have done a sound foundation work on the direction of trust. Especially if these KPIs are under the concept of “less entrepreneurial engagement for the state / more regulatory initiatives”.
Jul 11 at 15:19
On 07/09/10 1:00 AM, Takis Kiousopoulos wrote:
——————–
As far as the Greek reality is concerned there is no easy remedy.
It is possible to restore trust in Government in the medium term if
1. Politicians start talking the plain truth, eliminate half-truths and avoid white lies.
2.Key politicians and public servants are punished/ostracised for using their influence
to gain monetary advantages for themselves, their relatives and friends, let alone directly
pilfering public funds.
3. Government officials and other authorities make a serious effort to abide by and to enforce the law starting from simle things, like traffic discipline, illegal strikes,anti-social
behaviour, things that denigrate our status as a civilized nation.
Without making an honest effort to do these 3 things above,no amount of PR, CSR
and political sweet talk is going to restore trust in goverment.
Jul 14 at 14:55
“Young fresh minds”? We were all young once and presumably “fresh”. How’s that working out?
The Govts themselves are not to blame. No Western state is run by a despotic regime. rather they have been run by collusive pluralities of special interest voting blocks like “young fresh” students, govt employees, retirees, unions and other minorities du jour. The middle classes and the wealthy have been villified politically through taxation, fees and special hiring/contracting policies. Innovation, self-reliance and hard work are not valued by govts which kow-tow to idealistic and lazy thuggish groups that protest every other day and never miss a chance (or multiple chances) to vote.
Posted by Demetri Pavlatos
Jul 15 at 01:59
I’m having difficulty understanding the logic within the comment. There also seems to be a disconnection between these comments with the factual reality in several cases.
The cause for most distrust these days, I would imagine, have to do with the failure of our (US) government to execute authority over special interests such as the Wall St. financial institutions as well as a failure in Congress to maintain the laws designed to limit the damage to which those financial institutions can subject the country.
The taxes on the wealthy have dropped significantly over several decades! Most tax ‘breaks’ have involved various investment vehicles which are, in reality, only something that the middle class and wealthy are able to take advantage of and have only added to the problem of an inflated financial market.
I cannot begin to list the grants available to ‘Innovation’ and self-reliance is the only option while so many public ’safety-net’ programs have been cut to the bone in favor of funding the military industrial complex supporting a completely arbitrary, unnecessary and costly war the special interest groups you mention were protesting against.
I will agree that hard work does not appear to be valued by a government that taxes labor earnings at multiple times the rate of passive earnings. Of course, once a laborer is well into the middle class and wealthy class, it drops 6.2% due to the cap on amounts which are subject to FICA.
Seems to me your finger is pointed backwards.
Funny, the ‘how’s that working out’ sounded like Sarah Palin. But, really, are you blaming the current distrust of government to ‘fresh young minds’ rather than the same old corruption and greed we saw in the famous film of Wall Street fame?
Jul 16 at 20:17
Interesting points Demetri. As I said previously, I’m talking about young minds. The fact that “we were all young once and presumably “fresh”" does not mean anything. I can think of more than a few people who are over 70 years of age and yet, their thinking is as fresh as daily produce in your local grocery. It’s not age I am talking about. And it’s not idealisms either; we are fed up with those, too. It’s ideas, it’s different approaches, it’s new thinking we need.
It’s a chance to build something new. A new culture if you will.
How can you say the govts are not to blame and then turn around and say that “innovation, self reliance and hard work are not valued by govts?” To me that’s a contradiction in terms. Of course they are to blame. They are to blame for making us think new things don’t happen here. They are to blame for making us pests feeding on the public sector’s flesh. They are to blame for making us think about retirement rather than work, achievement, creation.
It’s the rust in those politicians’ heads that’s holds us back. Their lack thereof insight, foresight and dare.
Posted by Christos Dokos
Jul 17 at 13:27
As far as the Greek reality, I strongly believe that this trend is not easy reversible, because the things have come into a vicious circle.
I mean that the citizens are obliged to elect the concrete politicians and at the same time they don´t trust them!!
I would propose, a wellorganized, deep and effective «clean hands» mission, that would create a new political scene and would convince the citizens to recover the confidence to their covernment.
This «reset» maybe would be the only way, the citizens to revise their trust to the politicians, at least here in Greece.
They need fresh proposals, fresh ideas and fresh policies, coming from «fresh» persons !!!!
Apostolos Stingas
Jul 17 at 13:30
Forty years ago, Robert Kennedy, gave a speech about the real wealth of Nations and GDP. Three months later he was assassinated.
What is the GDP, the Gross Domestic Product? A measure of the growth of society? The transformation into money, an abstract concept, of our health, of our time, of the environment? No one has ever calculated the COST of the GDP. The damage of empty sheds, of useless merchandise, of lorries that run around empty like maddened insects, of the destruction of the planet. No one has ever estimated the value of wasted time in queuing, the wasted years working to produce useless objects. Of the years thrown away to buy useless objects created by advertising. The time, The Earth, the life, the family (the only important ones) are concepts that are too simple for the GDP. A monster that devours the world. It eats it and accumulates it. It digests it and transforms it into nothing. The equation GDP=wealth is an enchantment. The useless products do not become useful because someone buys them.
”only when the last river dries up
when the last tree is torn down
when the last animal is killed
only then will you understand that money cannot be eaten.”
Creek Prophecy
Speech by Robert Kennedy, 18 March 1968, University of Kansas.
”We will never find a purpose for our nation nor for our personal satisfaction in the mere search for economic well-being, in endlessly amassing terrestrial goods.
We cannot measure the national spirit on the basis of the Dow-Jones, nor can we measure the achievements of our country on the basis of the gross domestic product (GDP)
Our gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
Posted by Panayotis Tzinis