Official OECD statistics show a gradual erosion of trust not only in government and parliament, but in institutions in general. Speaking at Tuesday’s panel Bridging the Trust Divide between People and Institutions, Mr Marcos Bonturi, Director for Public Governance at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, noted that certain groups typically have even lower trust than the average.
“In most OECD countries, young people trust government less than the average,” he noted, adding that this was then reflected in the low election turnout.
According to Mr Bonturi, the erosion of trust is linked to economic conditions, which was evident during the last crisis, and even more to the increasing inequalities. “The anger that people feel about corruption, problems with integrity. People feel that the political system is not defending their interests.”
Countries that have managed to buck the trend are those which have invested in more participation, those that are promoting open-government policies, have participatory budgets, deliver a good public service etc.
These countries are putting in place the right mechanisms to build integrity, to fight against corruption, to prevent conflict of interest, putting some discipline in lobbying. They are aware that they have to be more efficient in providing public services, use new technologies.
Ms Kristina Plavšak Krajnc, Director of the Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia, echoed this, saying that “basically, we should do our task better and this would bridge the mistrust.”
“At the end of the day, actions speak louder than words.” She explained, though, that communication professionals were bound by certain legal frameworks.
“Our basic role is ensuring the transparency and public character of the government work. So we have a specific responsibility. The image of a state institution should be based on our true commitment, true work.”
She said government was supposed to provide service for the people but also by the people. One of her office’s task is building and maintaining trust. But she said that nobody has a “universal recipe for that.”
She believes it is crucial how people are approached and that the government must connect and interact with the people in the field, listen to them and include their problems in their actions.
The government must work with credible actors in local communities, make field visits, consult citizens through direct call centres, and open the door of state institutions.
Audiovisual tools are also welcome as well as examples from people’s lives. “We also want to learn from youth, they are daring, revolutionary, to find ways how to be creative, reaching more individualised audiences,” she said.
A spokesperson of the youth, Young BSF representative Ms Zsofia Racz, United Nations Youth Delegate of Hungary, said that in talking to a lot of young people she has found that there is one group of youths that says youths do not get enough information, while the other says the problem is an overload of information.
“Young people do not want to be represented, they want to be present, involved in the decision-making,” she said.
Mr Bonturi too believes the issue of youth participation is essential for the future of our democracies. In increasingly many countries, youth are consulted on legislative changes before they are passed, he said.
More and more countries have started to reserve a specific number of seats in parliament for youth, for example in Sweden. As a result, across OECD, Scandinavian countries have the lowest average age of MPs.
OECD is promoting such policies. Some also consider specific groups, such as youth, when planning their budget, he stressed.
