Changing Citizen Confidence: Orientations towards Political and Social Institutions in Australia, 1983-2010

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, when confidence in institutions was first measured in an Australian academic social survey, Australia -and the world -has faced many political, social and economic changes. From corporate scandals and company collapses, to unprecedented terrorist attacks, to major ongoing international conflicts, to changes in government and all manner of political machinations, to the global financial crisis and its aftermath. One consequence of such developments has been that many major political, social and economic institutions have come under intense pressure. Using survey research data, this paper investigates how public confidence in various Australian institutions and organisations has changed over time. The results are variable and in some instances surprising. Confidence in some institutions has remained high, and in some low, over an extended period of time. In other cases, confidence has varied quite markedly at different time points. As well as looking at trends in the level of public confidence in institutions, the paper examines different dimensions of confidence together with underpinning socio-political factors. It also discusses theoretical and practical implications of the data.

The role of information and communications technology in the transformation of government and citizen trust

“…Layne and Lee, 2001;Waller and Weerakkody, 2016) and international organizations (United Nations, 2014) consider transformation an advanced stage of digital government development. However, many initiatives have failed to transform the core functions or structure of government, and citizen trust remains low (Bean, 2015;Edwards, 2015;International Labour Organization, 2015Teo et al, 2008). We posit that IETG can contribute to reversing the decline in citizen trust.…”

Six Cs of pandemic emergency management: A case study of Taiwan's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Public confidence is related to the public's evaluations of the effectiveness of governmental actions and activities, especially whether government would perform its designated role based on the public's expectations [ 60 , 61 ]. Public confidence in government competency serves as a pivot point between government's pandemic response and citizens' compliance and coproduction behavior.…”

Confidence in Defence and Foreign Policy

“…The trends therefore show high and gradually increasing public confidence in the two main security organisations, the police and the armed forces. One explanation for this may be the increasing threats from terrorism in the post-9/11 world which brings people together to support the institutions which guarantee public security (Bean 2015). , 1983-2018 1983 1995 2001 2005 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Note 'I am now going to read out a number of organisations.…”

“…Another explanation is partisanship. Partisans tend to express more confidence in institutions than those who identify with minor parties or who are non-aligned (Bean 2015). Relatedly, U.S. research has shown that ideology plays a major role in predicting support for the military, with Republicans becoming consistently more likely to show support than Democrats (Murbach 2019).…”