Mother, should I trust the government? The impact of personal characteristics, professional position and policy alienation on trust of public professionals in the government

Trust is seen as crucial for the legitimacy of governments: Without trust governments cannot act in name of its citizens. Although various studies have studied citizen trust in the government, much less is known about whether those citizens who have to execute policies and are at the forefront of delivering services – for instance teachers and nurses - trust the government, and which factors matter for their trust. Trust of these professionals is crucial as they form the linking pin between state and citizens. This study aims to fill the gap in knowledge about public professional trust by analyzing three potential influences on the trust of public professionals: personal characteristics (age, gender, education), professional position (tenure, managing responsibility), and policy alienation (client meaninglessness). To test this we use two survey samples from professionals working in two policy fields in the Netherlands: education (n=1,183) and healthcare (n=1,723). Results show firstly that personal characteristics and professional position were far less important than expected. Instead, trust of public professionals was mostly related to whether they perceived current government policies as meaningful and contributing to their work. These findings were robust as they were found in both samples. Our results show that taking into account experiences with public policies is essential for understanding trust, which can ultimately influence policy performance.