EVIDENCE–BASED TRUST Christopher Pollitt

2 A POLITICALLY POPULAR IDEA Better performance information = Higher public trust

3 THE FOCUS HERE IS ON … Trust in the political leadershipX Trust in governmentX Trust in public services (police, health, education, etc)V [Many political statements thoroughly confuse these different targets]

4 CONDITIONS 1.The info must reach the citizen 2.It must be paid attention to 3.It must show a good performance! 4.It must be understood by the citizen 5.It must be trusted by the citizen

5 PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT HAS OTHER, BETTER JUSTIFICATIONS To encourage efficiency (technical efficiency) To influence resource allocation (allocative efficiency) To inform local professionals and managers To guide inspectorates, evaluators and auditors To serve as a basis for PRP

6 CONCLUSIONS Better perfomance information = higher public trust? Only under certain carefully managed and probably quite rare circumstances But it is worth at least trying to do no harm!

7 Meer info Instituut voor de Overheid Parkstraat 45 bus Leuven