“Wish you were here” trust in public administration in Latin America

Abstract

Studies show that Latin American citizens do not trust institutions. But what underlies this distrust? This work presents an exploratory and descriptive effort around Public Administration. The goals are: a) to contrast the beliefs that citizens and administrators have about Public Administration, b) to verify differences and similarities between countries of the region, c) to identify aspects of reform that promote trust. Information was gathered from three data sources: Latinobarómetro (2011, 2015), CAF Development Bank of Latin America, (2014), and a survey with the support of the Organization of American State (OAS, 2015). The analysis reveals that: a) there are no appreciable differences between officials and citizens, b) there is relative homogeneity between countries, c) open government policies can be an excellent opportunity to renew trust.

Keywords:
trust; public administration; civil servant; open government; Latin America