Building Trust in a Complex Policy Environment

                    Since the creation of this blog in 2010, its conter doesn't work and the same is happening with my YouTube channel since its creation in 2020. I've been harmed in so many ways and for so long, we can't tolerate all this abuses without consequences. However, all the world is demanding justice.The population must trust more in Brazilian institutions and what the world is demanding must be heard for all.  If you want to know my channel here is the link   https://youtube.com/@lucianofietto4773?si=ftiYIvhUgY3Hu6rg.  This post is a summary of the book with the title above published in 2024 at https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2024/07/oecd-survey-on-drivers-of-trust-in-public-institutions-2024-results_eeb36452.html

                    This report provides a comprehensive perspective of what drives trust in public institutions in 2023 by asking people in 30 OECD countries about their experience with, and expectations of public institutions at all levels of government. The Trust Survey serves as a foundation for the OECD's Reinforcing Democracy Initiative ( RDI). RDI provides evidence-based guidance and good international practices to help countries reinforce democratic values and institutions. Democratic government today stand at a critical juncture, steering environmental and digital transitions while having to face increased polarisation, heightened geopolitical tensions as well as social consequences of various economic developments such as inflation. In this high-stakes environment, building and maintaining trust in public institutions has emerged as a priority for many governments. In today's complex information environment, with the rise of disinformation and polarising content, how information is created, shared and consumed has an important link with trust. While trust in the media on average is relatively low and mirrors that in national government (39%), people's trust in government is closely related to media consuption habits: only 22% of those who prefer not to follow political news report high or moderate trust in government compared to 40% among those who follow the news. Additionally, while the use of statistics, data and evidence is shown to be a strong driver of trust, only about a third of people find government statistics trustworthy and easy to find and to understand. Overall, the 2024 Trust Survey confirms that it is the processes underpinning democratic governance that need strengthening to meet people's increasing expectations ensuring all people's voice are heard, strengthening checks among institutions, using better, transparent and verifiable evidence in decision-making, and balancing the interest of a diverse population are the best levers to improve trust, especially in national government. Trust in public institutions is the bedrock upon which public officials in democracies rely to govern and make policy choices to tackle pressing challenges. Trust is also an important indicator to measure how people perceive and assess their government institutions. In democratic systems, unlike in autocratic ones, citizens are not only free to report what they do not trust, but also encouraged to scrutinise government behaviour and show 'sceptical trust'. Among the different branches of national government, the executive generally elicit less trust than judicial system, but more trust than parliament. However, there are exceptions. In Czechia, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, parliament garners more trust than national government. Meanwhile in Chile, Colombia, Korea, and Mexico, trust in the judicial system is lower than trust in the national government. When dealing with the public, government institutions should foster a sense of dignity among their population. A basic pre-requisite for people to feel they are teated with dignity is to ensure fairness of treatment and processes. Further scope for improvement lies in the responsiveness of public institutions to adapt services to people's needs and expectations, particularly improving the perception of public employees' integrity, making use of innovation and people's feedback, allowing greater voice in local matters. Further, people's trust in national government is also positively related to confidence in one's ability to participate in politics. The effects of political polarisation on the functioning of democracy have been discussed at length in recent years. Polarisation embeds itself in political structure, narrowing the number of  "common ground" issues, this hinders governments' ability to enact reforms. The existence of a trust gap in institutions between supporters and opponents of the current government suggests that partisanship is becoming political polarisation. The gap is notably large in Canada, Finland, France and Iceland. Civil servants and policy makers, who interact with citizens on a day-to-day basis, can significantly contribute to building trust by displaying values of fairness and integrity. In recent years, concerns over the reliability and integrity of information have grown, with significant implications for democracy. Many people have concerns over the trustworthiness of media. As part of the growing difficulties with the evolution in the information environment, trust in traditional media is also suffering. An independent and pluralistic media environment is a fundamental principle of democracy as it facilitates the public's ability to scrutinise the actions of high-level political officials and policy makers.