Autocracies outdo democracies on public trust, survey finds

● Public trust in governments running the world’s democracies has fallen to new lows over their handling of the pandemic and amid a sense of economic pessimism, a global survey has found.

The Edelman Trust Barometer, which for two decades has polled thousands of people about trust in their governments, media, businesses and NGOs, conversely showed rising scores in several autocratic states, notably China.

It also highlighted that business, thanks to its role in developing vaccines and adapting workplace and retail practices, had retained strong levels of trust globally, albeit with reservations about its commitment to social fairness.

“We really have a collapse of trust in democracies,” said Richard Edelman, whose Edelman communications group published the survey of more than 36,000 respondents in 28 countries interviewed between November 1 and 24 last year.

“It all goes back to: ‘Do you have a sense of economic confidence? ’” he said, noting high levels of concern about job losses linked either to the pandemic or automation. The biggest losers of public trust over the past year were institutions in Germany, down 7 points to 46, Australia at 53 (-6), the Netherlands at 57 (-6), South Korea at 42 (-5) and the US at 43 (-5). In contrast, public trust in institutions in China stood at 83%, up 11 points, 76% in the United Arab Emirates (+9) and 66% in Thailand (+5).

The trillions of dollars of stimulus spent by the world’s richest nations to support their economies through the pandemic have failed to instil a lasting sense of confidence, the survey suggested.

In Japan, 15% of people believed they would be better off in five years, with about 20%-40% believing that in most other democracies.

But in China nearly two-thirds were optimistic about their economic fortunes and 80% of Indians believed they would be better off in five years.

Edelman said higher public trust levels in China were linked not just to economic perceptions but also to a greater sense of predictability about Chinese policy, not least on the pandemic.

“I think there is a coherence between what is done and what is said.”