The past few years have shaken the belief that humanity is on a clear cut path to bountiful progress and global peace. With armed conflicts appearing to escalate and democracy backsliding in numerous nation states, how much trust do global citizens actually place on the governments of their countries? Data from Ipsos reveals that trust in government has increased by 8 points, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it still does not change the poor overall score significantly.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the countries with the least amount of trust in their government frequently hail from South America. With Colombia, Argentina and Peru all having low trust scores, governments in this part of the world frequently face public backlash. Other areas that face similarly low trust ratings for governments are Eastern Europe, including Romania, Hungary and Poland, as well as South Africa with all things having been considered and taken into account.
On the other end of the spectrum we have a smattering of countries from various regions in the world. Malaysia has the highest trust rating for its government and public services, with India, Germany and the Netherlands all following closely behind. Zeroing on in government trust specifically, Indian citizens appear to have the highest level of trust in their elected government out of all other countries that are included in these rankings.
Interestingly, a third group emerges in the dataset which includes countries that place a lot of trust in public services but not quite as much in their governments. These include countries with some of the highest HDIs in the world, including Japan, Canada, the UK, France, Spain and of course the United States of America.
This seems to suggest that people trust public services more than they trust governments. This is a gap that needs to be bridged because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making people lose faith in the democratic system.
H/T: VC.
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With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the countries with the least amount of trust in their government frequently hail from South America. With Colombia, Argentina and Peru all having low trust scores, governments in this part of the world frequently face public backlash. Other areas that face similarly low trust ratings for governments are Eastern Europe, including Romania, Hungary and Poland, as well as South Africa with all things having been considered and taken into account.
On the other end of the spectrum we have a smattering of countries from various regions in the world. Malaysia has the highest trust rating for its government and public services, with India, Germany and the Netherlands all following closely behind. Zeroing on in government trust specifically, Indian citizens appear to have the highest level of trust in their elected government out of all other countries that are included in these rankings.
Interestingly, a third group emerges in the dataset which includes countries that place a lot of trust in public services but not quite as much in their governments. These include countries with some of the highest HDIs in the world, including Japan, Canada, the UK, France, Spain and of course the United States of America.
This seems to suggest that people trust public services more than they trust governments. This is a gap that needs to be bridged because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making people lose faith in the democratic system.
Read next: Here Are the Countries That Get Googled the Most
