The Role of Public Administration in an Era of Rising Income Inequality and Declining Trust in Government and Each Other

As the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow, the delivery of public services to the less well-to-do and redistributive social policy in general are at the forefront of citizens’ perceptions of their governments’ performance. We are simultaneously witnessing a continued, even steeper, decline in the levels of trust that citizens have in government as well as in each other. This work builds on scholarship that explores the connection between these trends by providing additional insight into how the determinants of trust in government differ from the factors that promote generalized trust. We find that while income inequality has no direct influence on trust in government, it is a factor associated with people’s lack of trust in each other. More importantly, our results suggest that the quality and fairness of bureaucratic processes have a substantial influence on both trust in public servants and generalized trust, even when controlling for other variables. This conclusion highlights the importance of public administration and public managers in an era of growing inequality and mistrust.