Restoring Trust Through the Co-Production of Public Services: A theoretical elaboration

Abstract

Co-production, the involvement of clients in the delivery of public services, is believed to foster trust. However, there is insufficient research on this topic to prove what is at present merely an assumption. This article gives theoretical insights into this relationship. First, it is identified that co-production relates to identification-based trust. Second, the most important theoretical mechanisms are identified that link the two concepts: increasing self-efficacy and the creation of trust networks. A third step is to move towards a more contingent perspective. This involves not only favourable conditions, but also obstructions to trust-building, such as crowding-out motivations and free-riding.

Key words:

• Co-production
• trust
• public services
• participation
• new public governance

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank two anonymous reviewers and the participants of the seminar ‘Co-production: the State of the Art’ in Budapest, 2012, for their helpful comments.

Notes

¹ These authors agree that it is very hard to show the (causal) relationship between public reforms and citizens’ attitudes towards government with available data, but do argue that there is no evidence that these reforms were able to restore public trust. Besides methodological explanations, only few others are given for the absence of an effect. One is that the citizens have apparently a preference for service provision by public bodies instead of private parties; therefore, privatization did not lead to an increase in trust.

² Based on interviews carried out in the field of child care in Amsterdam and Nijmegen as part of the FP7 research project Welfare Innovations at the Local Level in Favour of Cohesion (www.wilcoproject.eu).