What explains citizen trust in public institutions? Quality of government, performance, social capital, or demography

ABSTRACT

Trust is an essential indicator in the governance mechanism involving citizens’ confidence in public institutions. The present study focuses on citizens’ trust level in local administrative institutions, such as Upazila (sub-district) administrative offices in Bangladesh. It seeks to identify the factors that can explain the variations in citizens’ trust level in public institutions. Based on the survey data of 1440 respondents from 16 Upazila administrative offices, it is found that, first, citizens’ trust in these offices is high. Second, demographic variables involving citizens’ occupation, such as political activism and NGO work, have the strongest overall effect on the variations in citizens’ trust in the Upazila administrative offices. Citizens’ civic engagement or associations to secure service also affect trust in Upazila administrative offices more than performance variables do.

KEYWORDS:

• Institutional trust
• Upazila administrative offices
• social capital
• performance
• quality of government
• Bangladesh

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rifat Mahmud

Rifat Mahmud completed his graduation and post-graduation in Public Administration from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He completed two years Masters Program in Public Administration (MPA) under supervision of Professor Ishtiaq Jamil from Department of Administration and Organization Theory at University of Bergen, Norway. He is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at University of Barishal, Bangladesh. His research area of interest involves: Local Government; Institutional trust; administrative reform and, bureaucracy.