Citizens’ trust in public servants’ performance

Abstract

The article substantiates the concept of creating a system of indices (including both integral ones and indices of many parameters), which reflect the level of citizens’ trust in the activity of civil servants. The integral index of trust is calculated as an arithmetical average of the generalized trust index and the index of the personal trust measure. The multi-parameter index is based on the results of research by some well known sociologists (E. Ghiddens, F. Fukuyama, P. Shtompki, etc.) The many parameter index of trust consists of two complementary sub-indices: structure conditions and justified expectations. The sets of parameters are grounded and characterized; the formulas of their calculation are provided. Data collection for calculating trust indices was held by the National polling in 2011 on the adult people sample. A questionnaire was made up to poll the people and estimate their trust in three kinds of civil servants (from military, public service and law-enforcing and protecting bodies).The article gives the results of the poll.