Detecting and Curbing Decline in Public Trust in Government (Essay Sample)

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Detecting and Curbing Decline in Public Trust in Government
Trust implies the act of keeping a positive view of an individual, group or organization. Trust can be social or political. Political trust holds on the perception by the citizens that their politicians and the system of governance in general are responsible to serve the citizens without being monitored. Any negative change in this view from the citizens brings mistrust and can lead to problems such as unemployment, demonstrations/ strikes, reduction in investments and investments.
For the last several decades since 1960s, American government has been experiencing increased political mistrust by the citizens. Increase in innovation and technology such as the social media has led to the increase in the mistrust in the government as information is easily transferred and opinion polls are easily conducted. Apart from the economic decline experienced in 2008 in the entire world, there exist other factors that fuel the increase in the mistrust in the state’s government.
According Blind (11), corruption is one of the leading factors to the declining trust of the American citizens to their government. Since the citizens perceive the politics as being corrupt, this is transferred to the government institutions/organizations leading to a decline in trust. If this trust is eroded even if the individual politicians or leaders of political institutions are honest, the citizens generalize the whole system to be corrupt.
Blind further observes that, poor economic performance of the state also brings mistrust from the citizens (11). As observed in the economic recession in 2008, decrease in economic performance of the state is perceived by citizens as the incapacity of the government to counter economic challenges. Poor economic performance leads to unemployment as well as reduced investment. The citizens being unemployed and low profit margins in businesses obvious makes the citizens lose trust with the political or governance system. The citizens tend to have great trust to the states that are economically improving rather than the poor.
The level of public participation/involvement in the government matters also contributes to the level of trust that the citizens will have with the government. According to Blind (13), lack of involvement of the public directly or indirectly declines the trust that the citizens may have with the government. Low literacy levels within the state increases mistrust from the public as the uneducated tend to blame the government for their misfortunes. Women also tend to perceive themselves as marginalized by the government which leads to a decline in trust as well. The aged also lose their trust with the government as they grow old since they become less informed and tend to believe in rumours.
Despite these challenges, several activities or policies can be put in place so as to curb this decline in the level of trust by the citizens. From Blind’s notes (17), the level of trust can be raised or mitigated from declining through fighting corruption. Blind explains that the use of technology can help fight corruption in government institutions such as tax evasion and employment vacancies. The technology here can help through promotion of E-government so as to make these processes as cheap as possible and avoid corrupt activities. The technology also promotes E-public participation where citizens can easily present their grievances and get them solved. They can also present their suggestions and opinions through the social media such as twitter and Facebook.
Government decentralization is also seen as another way of promoting public trust. Decentralizing the government gives the society/citizens total participation in government matters and they can easily control what they want and do not want. With decentralization, the elderly will be taken care of, the illiterate will be educated and employment levels will be increased. This in turn boosts the citizens’ trust to their government. The citiz