Trust in Public Life

One of the defining failures of the Labour Government has been its loss of the public’s trust. The cumulative effect of the Iraq War, the never-ending spin, and the collapse of the public finances has meant a collapse in trust in political institutions. In turn, this has led to a dangerous disengagement from the political process by young people, minorities, and the relatively less well-off.

TrustedReputation sought to tackle this issue together with colleagues from Brunel University and University College London. The results of our two year investigation into how trust really operates in public life are published in The British Journal of Politics and International Relations (2010, Wiley Blackwell).

Using specially designed datasets generated from YouGov’s weekly omnibus and the British Election Study’s Continuous Monitoring Panel, we examined how trust judgements work in relation to two British institutions—political parties and politicians. Our findings have been reported to the Cabinet Office, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and other policy makers. An ongoing follow up study examines how trust judgement work in relation to four contrasting British institutions – the NHS, local councils, Tesco and Greenpeace.

To see how TrustedReputation can help you understand how public trust judgements work in relation to your organisation, please contact us.