Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions in Finland

Executive Summary

People’s trust in others and in governments is an important foundation of democratic systems, ensuring their legitimacy and sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that governments need to rebuild trust to handle crises, facilitate policy responses and implement reforms.

Finland is a high-trust society, ranking among the top performers in OECD countries. In 2019, 64% of the Finnish population reported trusting the government, compared to an OECD average of 45%. Indeed, the notion of a trust-based governance system is deeply enshrined in the ethos of Finnish civil servants, and, together with the rule of law, a merit-based system and a values-based integrity approach, underpins the functioning of Finnish public institutions. However, by 2019, trust in government had declined by 12 percentage points from 76% in 2007.

Finns maintained high levels of trust in the capacity of the government to manage the pandemic, inform the public, and address the consequences for the economy and society. People with higher levels of institutional trust also complied more with restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 emergency. As of November 2020, 86% of the population considered the information provided by political leaders reliable. At the same time, the pandemic provides an opportunity to better understand how government competences and values influence public trust and to identify actions to strengthen and maintain trust.

This report analyses the challenges for reinforcing trust in Finland and identifies opportunities to address them. Alongside desk research and interviews with the main stakeholders, the report is based on the OECD Trust Survey, which provides the citizen’s perspective on government performance and public governance values. The findings can contribute to the transformation of the Finnish public administration and to designing reforms to respond to evolving expectations and needs.

Despite the high national averages, trust in government institutions is significantly lower for rural residents, lower income households and the less educated. If these pockets of distrust deepen, they may undermine Finnish social cohesion, which is necessary for coping with change due to ageing, climate change, digitalisation and the transformation of work.

While trust in public institutions and satisfaction with democracy are high, the percentage of people who believe that they can influence political processes – either because they perceive they are competent to understand or participate in politics (30%) or because they believe they have a say in what government does (40%) – is low compared to countries with similar levels of trust. The potential disengagement of certain population groups should be tackled by promoting broader social dialogue.

According to the OECD Trust Survey, trust in different institutions varies. After the police, which is trusted by over 85% of Finland’s population, the civil service (66%) is the most trusted institution in the country, followed by the national government (61%), the parliament (53%) and local government (52%).

The drivers of public trust also vary according to the institution and level of government considered, suggesting a need for different strategies to ensure that policies and reforms to address trust are correctly targeted. The responsiveness of public services and the reliability of the government in addressing future challenges and providing a stable economic environment have the greatest influence on people’s trust in the national government and the civil service. While a large share of Finns perceives that the government and the civil service act with integrity, openness and fairness, these values have less influence on levels of trust than the government’s competence – most likely because they are recognised as being already well entrenched. Levels of trust in local governments are most influenced by interpersonal trust and engagement opportunities provided.

The main recommendations of this report revolve around six main areas related to: 1) improving measurement of trust in government; 2) strengthening responsiveness in service design and delivery; 3) improving reliability for a more inclusive policy making; 4) improving openness to strengthen political efficacy and participation; 5) supporting integrity to promote trust over compliance-oriented control; 6) ensuring fairness and non-discrimination. The main findings and key recommendations are summarised in the following table.

Main findings and key recommendations

 

Main findings	Key recommendations
Measuring people’s trust in government and public institutions
According to the OECD Trust Survey, Finns report high trust in government. However, trust in governmental institutions is significantly lower for rural residents, lower income households and the less educated.	Keep measuring people’s trust in government, allowing the identification of pockets of distrust that may fracture the Finnish social contract. Strengthen the role of institutional trust as a key element for collectively addressing the societal transformations in Finland (e.g. ageing, climate change, a more diverse society).
According to the OECD Trust Survey fielded in August 2020, 66% of the population reported trusting the civil service, 61% the national government and 52% the local government.	Further promote the importance of maintaining the Finnish trust capital as a core value of the Finnish administrative culture and a cornerstone of institutional legitimacy, which provides a more efficient allocation of resources and builds resilience in the Finnish society.
People with higher levels of institutional trust also complied more with restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 crisis. Trust in public institutions has proven essential during the COVID-19 pandemic and has contributed to Finland’s relative success in handling the pandemic.
During the pandemic, the Finnish government put in place innovative instruments to gather information on people’s views, needs and expectations for decision making, for example with the OECD Trust Survey, the Pulse Survey and Lockdown Dialogues.	Finland could repeat these surveys in the future as regular monitoring tools to evaluate governance outcomes, identify levers for change and improve evidence-based decision making.
Strengthening responsiveness in service design and delivery
According to the empirical results, responsiveness in delivering public services has the highest influence on people’s trust in the national government and the civil service. People’s expectations of the administration’s capacity to innovate has a strong positive influence on trust at the local level of government.	Finland is already spurring innovation as a core value within the administration and achieving systemic change. It could consolidate this process by aligning ways of working in the administration, institutionalising innovative experiences across different institutions and focusing on the longer term to address political cycle discontinuity.
The long-awaited reform of the health and social services may have a negative impact on levels of institutional trust because of the changes in how services are provided, but also because of previous failures to approve the reform and fragmented approaches to it.	Make sure that the implementation of the health and social reform comes with a broad political commitment and ownership for administrative integration and simplification. The government could accompany the reform with a sound, people-centred and transparent plan with numerical targets, clear time frames and ways for citizens to monitor progress to reduce uncertainty and build trust in the efficacy of this reform.
Strengthening the digital transformation and ensuring that it reaches all segments of the population is essential for further improving people’s trust in the quality of services.	Take a cohesive approach to service design and delivery in the digital age, such as setting standards, guidelines and initiatives to secure people’s involvement across the design and delivery of services. Strengthen the availability and adoption of common digital tools to enable an omni-channel approach for service provision.
The public administration plays a key role in defining trust relations within Finnish society. It is therefore essential to ensure that people perceive the public value created by civil servants.	Reinforce and promote the core values of serving people as part of the administrative culture and profile and display the work carried out by the administration, including during crises. Address the noxious effects brought about by hate speech and higher exposure of civil servants through social media. In addition, given that the civil service has been restructured and reduced over the past decade, it will be important to update necessary skills, including digital ones, and build capacity in local administrations in order to prepare the next generation of civil servants.
Improving reliability for more inclusive policy making
Government’s capacity to plan ahead and minimise uncertainty is an important driver of trust in government and the civil service. Finland is quite unique in carrying out foresight and preparedness exercises at all levels of government, but they could be better incorporated into policy making. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic can offer some direction on how to strengthen and align these processes and increase their effectiveness in building resilience for society.	Reinforce reliability by reviewing policy-making processes to make design and implementation more inclusive. In view of the important transformation of Finnish society, the government could reform the formulation process of government programmes by clarifying responsibilities and enhancing dialogue between the political leadership and the senior civil service to facilitate the inclusion of subjects such as climate change, intergenerational justice, equality, etc. in the recovery plans. Actions include strengthening political efficacy by engaging citizens in policy choices and monitoring results, and by giving regular feedback on inputs provided by civil society. Public accountability and transparency can be reinforced by focusing on results rather than processes, fostering innovation and experimentation in the civil service, and identifying clear and measurable results to be monitored in user‑friendly and open source formats.
	Strengthening existing structures and adopting a systemic and unified approach that focuses on longer scenarios would strengthen foresight exercises The anticipatory governance project may help move towards a more transversal approach in foresight and futures scenarios.
Improving openness to strengthen political efficacy and participation
Openness and people’s engagement are strong determinants of trust in local government and have a weaker but significant effect on trust in the civil service. Overall, Finland has comparatively high levels of openness, although improvements are needed to make sure citizens are engaged in all parts of the policy cycle.	To ensure democracy continuity and strengthen the legitimacy of engagement, the government could develop initiatives to proactively reach out to those left behind and engage them, for example by exploring further representative deliberative processes, as well as making national dialogues a regular practice, and giving public and regular feedback on inputs provided by civil society at different stages of consultation.
There is a “Finnish paradox”: while trust in public institutions and levels of satisfaction with democracy are high, Finns score comparatively low on self‑perception of their ability to understand and participate in political processes (internal political efficacy) and belief that the political system in their country allows them to have a say in what the government does (external political efficacy).	Develop clear guidelines to communicate efficiently through social media, avoiding confusion and misunderstandings; include these guidelines in the government’s communication strategy. Develop projects or programmes in schools, including some form of political or civic activities, such as including a service learning curriculum and community service activities that provide youth with opportunities to contribute to their communities.
	Consider other targeted experiences to enhance social cohesion and democracy, such as initiatives developed at the European level to support and fund groups and organisations if they face discrimination or support the common good; advocacy networks (AGE Platform Europe for older citizens’ interests or the European Anti-Poverty Network); or support to citizens wanting to propose legislation to be considered by the European Commission (European Citizens Initiative).
Political parties and trade unions could help co-ordinate the diverse and multiple preferences and ensure the representation of interests in policy making. However, these institutions have witnessed a big drop in membership in Finland.	To strengthen interest representation institutions and rebuild trust in political parties and unions, the government of Finland may consider a more proactive approach to developing initiatives on transparency and good governance, such as promoting the accountability of leaders, democratic candidate selection procedures and participative decision-making processes within organisations.
Strengthening integrity to promote trust over compliance-oriented control
Finland is perceived to be amongst the least corrupt countries in the world. A merit-based civil service and a values-based approach are fundamental elements of its public sector integrity system. Nonetheless, Finland should continue investing in maintaining this asset and risks should be identified early and managed effectively. For instance, 45% of civil servants are not aware of a channel for disclosing wrongdoing, and 58% stated that ethics training was needed in the civil service.	Strengthen the Finnish culture of public integrity by clarifying the existing channels for reporting wrongdoing and improving the measures for managing conflicts of interest and pre- and post-public employment.
	Specific ethics training could further engage public officials and allow them to link these measures to situations they face on a daily basis.
Lobbying has been recognised as an area where further work is needed, since there is some evidence that practices such as “old boy networks”, nepotism and excessively close connections with business are quite common in Finnish society.	Finland could take the opportunity of the upcoming Act on Transparency Register to promote an innovative and inclusive process to promote a transparent system and reinforce the commitment of key actors, such as business, non-governmental organisations and think tanks.
Ensuring fairness and non-discrimination as values to build trust
The Finnish population considers its society to be fair and positively evaluates the government’s delivery on equity and non-discrimination, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in recent decades, intergenerational social mobility in Finland has slowed, and challenges to maintain high levels of trust in institutions exist for some population groups, which may feel that policies have left them behind.	Secure equality in the availability of and participation in early childhood education as well upper secondary education. Implement specific protective measures in the school transitions of children and young people with an immigrant background.
	Strengthen good relations and dialogue among demographic groups at the local level and remove barriers to participation for marginalised groups to enhance fairness. The preventive units in the police districts seem to be effective in building trust at community levels and this method of working could be extended to other contexts.