Report: Rebuild trust by reviving public service

The President and Congress should take several steps, including increasing pay for key civil servants, to rebuild the trust of the American people in their government, argues a new report from a National Academy of Public Administration panel.

Surveys show that in 1964, nearly 80 percent of Americans expressed a significant level of trust in the federal government. But 30 years later, the trust level had dropped to only about 20 percent, reported NAPA's Panel on Civic Trust and Citizen Responsibility in its study, "A Government to Trust and Respect: Rebuilding Citizen-Government Relations for the 21st Century."

"For many Americans, government is a large and distant entity from which they feel disconnected and disaffected. Americans love their country and its Constitution, but many do not like and do not trust their government," the report concluded.

While this may seem like old news to seasoned public servants, the panel of current and former federal civil servants, state officials and academics say the trends point to a serious problem. "The very high levels and deep resilience of civic distrust in recent decades do not appear to this panel to be routine or benign," the report said.

A large part of the problem is distrust in elected officials. But the panel argued that several steps should be taken to improve the senior civil service as well. "The President and Congress should work together to improve the quality of public officials by strengthening the appeal of public service," the report said.

Specifically, the panel recommended "rationalization of our ethics laws and their enforcement mechanisms, improved salaries and benefits for key public employees carrying exceptional responsibilities and leadership burdens, a reductionn in hostility in the Senate confirmation process, and improved nurturing and cultivation of the senior civil service."

The panel also said agencies need to focus on customer service if they are to combat citizens' belief that government often fails to produce results. Agencies should allow independent and private-sector organizations to collaborate with them in creating performance standards, assessing results against these standards and publicizing their findings, the report said.

Citizen report cards, score cards and customer surveys can be used to provide proof of successful federal programs, the panel said. Making citizens aware of agencies' performance is critical, the report said, because "public trust in government is dependent upon information."