Re-thinking trust in Scotland: from theory to practice
This report presents a literature review of work on trust in government, and uses this to re-think how Scottish Government could conduct future research on trust in government.
Footnotes
1 OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions – 2024 Results | OECD
3 The interpersonal is connected to trust placed in an individual, while institutional trust is that placed in systems and institutions.
4 Referred to as the perception of governments’ motivations, meaning that a government is perceived as acting in the interest of citizens.
5 For example questions like, “How much do you trust your government?”
6 Experimental studies are experimental in nature. They often start with a question of why something is the way it is, and then an attempt to manipulate at least one variable constant, to observe the effect of the manipulation. It is in essence about experimenting regarding what the source of the problem is and to what extent it can be explained.
7 Ireland, Norway and Scotland were chosen as profile countries due to a combination of practicality and scholarly interest.
8 DFØ website can be found here: https://www.dfo.no/undersokelser/innbyggerundersokelsen/rad-bygge-tillit-til-den-offentlige-forvaltningen.
9 You can also find the report here: https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/6bf0d1fbc91d42139625c0626bfcc2a6/en-gb/pdfs/kud_expression-preparedness.pdf.
10 This report can also be found here: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-public-expenditure-infrastructure-public-service-reform-and-digitalisation/publications/action-plan-for-designing-better-public-services/.
11 OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions – 2024 Results: Building Trust in a Complex Policy Environment.
Contact
Email: amy.watson@gov.scot