You are standing on the street corner, microphone in hand. As the people flow past, busy to get on with their day, you ask just a few fleeting questions to the passersby.
“Who do you distrust the most, and why?”
As democratic satisfaction worldwide continues to decrease, you can only imagine the answers. Politicians, Bankers, Billionaires, Police, Insurance Companies. People in power and companies with an iron fist over our economies.
Current trends in Australian politics show a steady decrease in governmental trust, a shift from a rate of 86% trustworthy for John Howard (2007) to just 41% for Malcom Turnbull in July of 2018. As highlighted through the utilisation of the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, if trends continue less than 10% of the Australian population could trust political institutions by 2025. As government trust declines, so too does the social and economic well-being of the world around it.
Without trust in politics, what actually happens to our institutions? When we stop caring about where our votes are going or about which party is in parliament are we putting our country at risk? Weakening trust has shown to have incredibly complex problems spanning from eroding authority, lack of public support for policy and law and the rise of authoritarian-populist and independent forces within parliament. Representation becomes increasingly sparse and corruption emerges in people, parties and organisations we should be able to trust.
A recent study by the University of Canberra has begun exploring how Australia and other struggling states can regain the trust of their citizens. A complex and multi-faceted problem that has been researched for decades, the report showed no singular answer as to how any political institution could drive political trust upwards. One answer as to how political trust could be approached, is through the supply and demand principle defined through many areas of research. Demand focuses on overcoming barriers to social, economic or political participation. Due to this, many interventions would tend to focus on dealing with issues of social disadvantage through education, labour market activation, public participation, improved representation, place-based service delivery and other forms of empowerment.
Supply theories of trust start from the idea that public trust must in some way correspond with the trustworthiness of government. The argument is that it is the performance of government that matters most in orienting the outlooks of citizens, together with its commitment to procedural fairness and quality.
This brings to surface another question. Are our politicians the right people to take charge of these issues currently? If we are already sitting at an incredibly low rate of political satisfaction, how much do we trust the current politicians to move towards changing this. It is difficult to consider increasing civic engagement without the engagement of politicians, but is it through alternative partnerships and movements that our democratic trust can increase? The University of Canberra study also touches upon whether it is the media, the private sector or the community sector’s responsibility to help increase government trust despite raising questions as to what has caused such a large increase in distrust from the beginning.
A recent survey has shared some reasons as to why and how Australians believe governments should change. A large number of responders shared their support for reducing the amount that political parties could spend on advertising and the need for more restrictions to who can supply donations to politicians. A rising worry is that companies and individuals with the capabilities to supply politicians with large donations puts a greater preference towards political actions that will favour those individuals over others without the monetary capability to donate similar amounts.
Overall, there remains a final thought. What can we as individuals do to not only increase support in government but to keep politicians accountable? How can we ensure that our politicians start representing the people over the pennies? Reading up on government policies, understanding who our votes are going to and talking to our friends and families about politics and voting is the first step. The ability to vote is a privilege that we hold as citizens of a free, democratic country and taking actions starts with the individual. Democratic reform is clearly needed and only time and the driving support of more individuals raising their voices will tell how long political reform will take.
