Determinants of sustainable Citizen-State relationships: A survey of trust, satisfaction and organizational deviances

With the modernization of public sector organizations and the prominent place given to concepts borrowed from the private sector, evaluating trust in and satisfaction with public institutions has become a sine qua non-institutional obligation. Similarly, the evaluation of public organizations’ relationship with all stakeholders, with a specific focus on citizens, has gained importance. This ‘Relational Performance’, the performance of the relationship as seen and evaluated by citizens themselves, has given the citizens’ voice an added importance in the overall evaluation of the performance of public organizations. Corruption, both perceived and experienced, can affect the relationship between public institutions and citizens. Previous studies demonstrated how corruption is negatively associated with citizens’ satisfaction and trust in public institutions and with the performance of public agencies.

The project “Determinants of Sustainable Citizen-State Relationships: A Survey of Trust, Satisfaction and Organizational Deviances”, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, aims to examine whether, and how Perceived Corruption and Experienced Corruption influence Trust in Institutions and Satisfaction with Public Services in the Canadian and Swiss context. To pursue this goal, this project will: (1) identify the level and features of citizens’ perceived corruption in public institutions; (2) quantify the amount of citizens’ direct experience of corruption with public institutions and its characteristics; (3) analyze the level and dynamics of citizens’ trust in public institutions; (4) assess the scope/degree/nature of citizens’ satisfaction with public services; (5) investigate the differences in the level of trust in institutions, satisfaction with public services, perceived, and experienced corruption across the target countries; and (6) relate the identified differences with the political and socio-economic context of the target countries. This will be achieved using a two-step process, beginning with meetings with representatives of public institutions, and then leading to the development of two sample surveys on 4,000 Canadians and 3,500 Swiss citizens.