Public trust in government: An examination of citizen trust differentials in public administrators and other government officials at the federal, state and local levels

This study assesses public trust in various government officials, including public administrators, elected executives, politically appointed agency officials, and legislatures, across the three levels of United States government. The study utilizes primary data from a random sample telephone survey conducted in 2004 of 1,078 adult residents of Stark County, Ohio.;The study yielded evidence to support the assertion that the general public has a higher level of trust in federal and state public administrators compared to elected and politically appointed officials, but this was not the case for county government public administrators. Although public administrators tended to be trusted more than other government officials, they were trusted less than people in general. Likewise, most groups of government officials were trusted less than people in general.;The study also yielded evidence to support the assertion that government officials are trusted more at the local level compared to similar officials at the state and federal level. For instance, county public administrators were trusted more than their state and federal counterparts, while state public administrators were trusted more than federal administrators.;General support for government was found to be directly related to public trust in elected executives and their appointed agency executives, regardless of the level of government. When controlling for the effects of trust in other government officials, trust in public administrators had no significant relationship to government support, regardless of the level of government.;Another finding of the study was that trust in public administrators was a function of respondent trust in people in general and support for the associated level of government, with societal trust being the dominant variable. This model held for all three levels of government with no other explanatory variables influencing trust in public administrators. Explanatory variables for public trust in other government were varied and dissimilar to the public administrator model with variables such as political ideology, political party affiliation and household financial status being more prominent.