CAPAM Symposium on Networked Government: Building public trust through public–private partnerships

Published date01 September 2005
Date01 September 2005
DOI10.1177/0020852305056825
Subject MatterArticles
Building public trust through public–private partnerships1
Brian Brewer and Mark R. Hayllar
Abstract
Collaborative working through public–private partnerships, though not new, has
become more common. Strong partnerships are built and sustained by norms of
reliability consistent with the high levels of systemic trust that the principles of
good governance encourage. This article examines two public–private partner-
ships in Hong Kong in which government actions have severely undermined the
trust necessary for the public–private partnership model to work effectively. In the
first case, the trust established through a long-standing government/civil society
partnership in the delivery of school-based education has been dissipated by
acrimonious public wrangling over the autonomy of the service providers. The
second case focuses on a large-scale infrastructure project to build an arts hub on
redeveloped land. Policy inconsistencies by the Hong Kong government, together
with deep suspicions about the extent to which large, well-connected businesses
have influenced the project’s development, have seriously undermined the trust of
arts community stakeholders and the general public.
Introduction
High levels of social trust facilitate interactions within societies and organizations,
though a healthy distrust can help to check abuses by power holders. When the
government provides a strong legal system and tackles problems of injustice and
inequality, social trust increases. Yet despite the improvements promised by recent
public sector reforms, current levels of citizen distrust in government, both in
developing and developed countries, pose a serious threat to the capacities of
governments to govern effectively. Distrust results from a loss of social capital, which
Brian Brewer and Mark R. Hayllarare Associate Professors in the Department of Public and Social
Administration, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China. An earlier draft of this article
was presented at the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management
(CAPAM) 10th Anniversary Biennial Conference, Singapore, October 2004.
Copyright © 2005 IIAS, SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Vol 71(3):475–492 [DOI:10.1177/0020852305056825]
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
is affected directly by how well the formal institutions of government facilitate good
governance within their societies. This paper presents two case studies about
governmental partnerships in Hong Kong. One focuses on education and the other
on infrastructure development. The cases are critically assessed with respect to the
impact of the Hong Kong government’s partnership strategies on social capital and,
consequently, on both the maintenance and development of social trust.
The nature of social trust and trust in government
Trust refers to the faith or confidence that exists about ‘the intentions and actions of
a person or group to be ethical, fair and non-threatening concerning the rights and
interests of others in social exchange relationships’ (Carnevale, 1995: 20). There is a
strong normative foundation underpinning the concept of social trust (Ruscio, 1996)
and, despite its diffused and non-specific nature, it does act to facilitate cooperation
with strangers, This capacity to engage effectively beyond ties of kinship or common
locality is an essential precondition for large-scale economic activities to develop
within market economies (Banfield, 1958; Fukuyama, 1995; Ingelhart, 1999, cited in
Brewer, 2003; Knack and Keefer, 1997; Putnam, 1993b, c) and for successful capac-
ity-building within public–private partnerships (Bovaird, 2004). This trust is
systemic and involves trust in institutions as distinct from the interpersonal trust that
develops between individuals.
There is an increasing tendency for citizens to distrust public institutions in both
developed (Kaase and Newton, 1995; Nye et al., 1997; Pew Research Center, 1998)
and developing countries (Haque, 2001). Indeed, a lack of trust in government has
been identified as one of the aspects of contemporary political culture that poses
serious problems to capabilities to govern (Dror, 1994). Given that social trust and
trust in government are strongly linked (Brewer and Seldon, 1998; Wuthnow, 1998),
efforts to enhance or at least to prevent further erosion of systemic trust are an
important aspect of capacity-building in public policy development and public service
delivery. There is also evidence that increased public cynicism about government
makes people less willing to trust other people in general (Wuthnow, 1998) and
results in lower levels of public trust and public spirit in society (Berman, 1997).
Trust is always conditional and nobody trusts everybody all of the time (Wuthnow,
1998). Trust-building must be a continuous process if sufficient trust to sustain effec-
tive social interactions is to be established and maintained. Therefore government
actions, particularly when they are consistent with the principles of good governance,
play an important part in producing trust within society (Brehm and Rahn, 1997; Levi,
1998; Offe, 1999; Rothstein, 2000). When the state ensures a strong legal system to
enforce property rights and contracts and when minority rights are upheld, trust
becomes less risky for all, including the most vulnerable (Levi, 1998). Effective per-
formance by the public sector makes people feel better about government and more
willing to cooperate with each other (Brehm and Rahn, 1997). An analysis of data
from the world values surveys of 1981 and 1990–91 (Knack and Keefer, 1997) con-
cluded that higher levels of trust and civil cooperation are associated with stronger
economic performance.
Social trust and social capital are closely related concepts. Social capital, which
476 International Review of Administrative Sciences 71(3)

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