5 Ways to Rebuild Trust in Government
Only 1 in 5 Americans trust the federal government—so how do we restore public confidence?
For more than two decades, the Partnership for Public Service has worked across presidential administrations to provide federal employees, leaders, and agencies with insights, training, and research to better serve the public. Through these efforts, and by improving the narrative around our federal institutions, the Partnership seeks to build a more trusted and trustworthy government—and a stronger democracy.
Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the Partnership believes the health of our democracy depends on the relationship between our government and those it serves. Paul Hitlin, a senior manager at the Partnership, lays out five foundational strategies to help improve this relationship and reignite public trust in government.
1. Showcase individual federal employees.
When Americans hear the term “government,” they often think of elected officials in Washington, D.C. However, more than 2 million professional, nonpartisan federal employees make up the bulk of our government—80% of whom work outside the Washington, D.C., area. The public views these civil servants more positively than the government as a whole. Fully 46% of the public say they trust civil servants, 50% believe most civil servants are “committed to helping people like me,” and 55% think civil servants are competent.
Agencies need to highlight these employees to correct common misconceptions about who works in government and what they do. This approach would resonate with the public.
People want to hear more positive stories about our government, and individuals respond well to personalized stories of high-achieving federal employees who make a difference, as we’ve learned through reactions to the Partnership's Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals program. These awards, given every year, honor outstanding career civil servants who seldom receive public recognition.
2. Make the government more transparent and accountable to the public.
Today, just 15% of Americans believe the government is transparent, and less than half believe it is accountable to the public, with many Americans viewing the government as opaque and disproportionately influenced by powerful and secret interests.
There is no silver bullet for changing these perceptions, but certain improvements would help. Agencies should make data on how well they serve the people more available and easier to understand. Elected officials and government leaders need to be agile and responsive to the public’s concerns. Agencies should simplify the process for removing federal employees who do not meet their obligations to the public, while ensuring that career civil servants—hired based on their skills and required to be nonpartisan—are not fired for politically motivated reasons.
3. Develop modern, customer-friendly services.
When encountering many common federal services, the public is largely satisfied with them. At least 70% of the people who applied for a passport, filed for Social Security, passed through an airport security checkpoint, or applied for Medicare said they were satisfied with the experience.
Still, just 21% of Americans believe the government listens to the public, and only 23% think federal services are easy to navigate.
To reverse these trends, all federal employees should be held accountable for meeting customer needs, and agencies should develop processes that make it easier to collect and share customer feedback. Congress needs to work with agencies to invest in, and do more training on, emerging technology that would enable easier-to-use digital services.
4. Improve federal leadership.
Good leaders are the most critical factors to our government’s success and impact.
Government leaders must develop innovative solutions to complex problems, motivate their workforce, and hold their teams accountable for delivering critical services to the public. However, unlike organizations within the private sector and the military, the federal government does not have a systematic, deliberate approach to developing and supporting leaders.
All federal executives and managers, including political appointees, need to meet a standard for leadership that holds them accountable for running high-performing agencies. Agencies should adopt a framework, similar to the one developed by the Partnership, that requires federal leaders to not only hold technical expertise but also manage healthy agencies and teams and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
5. Reconnect with young people.
Just 15% of Americans ages 18-34 trust the government, the lowest of any age group in our survey, and nearly 70% think the government does not communicate effectively with them.
Agencies need to do a better job of engaging with this demographic, emphasizing the power of federal service on local communities—a theme that would resonate with young adults—and featuring success stories of young people in government.
The government also needs to draw more young people into public service. Today, people under 30 compose just 7.5% of the federal workforce but about 20% of the broader labor market. Agencies and Congress need to work together to simplify the government’s complex hiring process, increase the use of federal internships, and find new ways to convert interns into full-time employees, all of which would help young people better connect with the federal government.
