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Demokratiskolan
The Trust card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 28 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaDemocracy & power
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Democracy & power

Trust

Trust in institutions & between people

Trust is democracy's fuel: without trust in the institutions and in each other, every rule becomes expensive to uphold. Sweden is among the countries with high interpersonal trust, but trust cannot be decided into being. The public sphere can only earn it, and the machinery for that is called legal certainty, transparency and scrutiny.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · everyday encounters & service · approx 25 %
  • Region · healthcare's treatment · approx 15 %
  • State · legal certainty & scrutiny · approx 55 %
  • EU · the rule of law · approx 5 %

No one can decide trust into being, but the central government owns the tools that build it: legal certainty, transparency and independent scrutiny. The meter shows the public power over those tools.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityEveryday encounters
The regionHealthcare's encounters
Central governmentThe systems behind trust · centre of gravity
Who decides?
No committee owns trust, but every administration affects it: the school, social services, the building permit office.
The care staff in the encounter, the regional council (regionfullmäktige) and the patients' advisory committee behind them.
The Riksdag, the courts, the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO) and the Swedish National Audit Office (Riksrevisionen). SCB measures how trust moves.
What do they decide?
Treatment, waiting times and equal treatment in the everyday services, where most people meet the public sphere.
Healthcare is the most common and most sensitive encounter with the public sphere. Queues and treatment move trust quickly.
Legal certainty, equal treatment, transparency and independent scrutiny: what makes institutions worth trusting.
Where are decisions made?
In every contact, in the council's service goals and in the auditors' reports.
In the care encounter, and in the scrutiny by the patients' advisory committee and IVO.
In the laws, the courts and the scrutiny reports.
Who pays?
Municipal tax: service, accessibility and complaints handling.
Regional tax: healthcare and its complaints system.
The central government budget: courts, oversight and statistics.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Give feedback, use the complaints function, contact the municipality's auditors.
Regional election Turn to the patients' advisory committee, report serious failings to IVO.
General election Appeal incorrect decisions, file a complaint with JO, vote.
EUNo formal role over Swedish trust, but EU cooperation rests on member countries upholding the rule of law. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case An agency decision goes wrong, and is corrected
  1. State

    A decision lands wrong

    The agencies make millions of decisions every year, and sometimes it goes wrong: a benefit is refused on incorrect grounds. For the person affected, this is where trust is decided.

  2. State

    You request a reconsideration

    The first step is to ask the agency to think again itself. Reconsideration is free, and the decision must tell you how to proceed.

    Point of influence

    Write briefly, refer to the decision and send it within the stated time. You need no representative.

  3. State

    The administrative court examines it

    If the agency stands firm you can appeal to the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt), which examines whether the decision follows the law. The court is independent of the agency.

    Point of influence

    Appealing is free, and the court has a responsibility to ensure the case is sufficiently investigated.

  4. State

    JO examines the handling

    If the agency was slow or careless, the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO) can examine and criticise. JO's statements do not change your decision, but they often change the agency's routines.

    Point of influence

    A complaint to JO is open to everyone and is made easily online.

  5. State

    The system learns

    The National Audit Office (Riksrevisionen), the Swedish Agency for Public Management (Statskontoret) and the agency's own internal audit catch patterns in the errors. SCB and researchers measure how trust moves over time.

  6. Your everyday life

    Trust is repaired in the small things

    You were proved right in the end, and you tell others. Trust is built exactly like that: one correctly handled case at a time.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which institution do you trust most, and what has it done to earn it?

  2. How is your trust affected by a single bad contact with an agency?

  3. What does it mean for a society that strangers trust each other?

  4. What would make you trust your neighbours less, and what builds it up again?

  5. Who carries the responsibility when trust in a system falls: the system or those who describe it?

Glossary

Mellanmänsklig tillit
The trust between people who do not know each other, often measured with the question of whether people in general can be trusted.
Omprövning
Asking the agency to examine its own decision one more time before you go to court.
Förvaltningsrätt
The court that examines appeals of agency decisions.
Tillsyn
Independent scrutiny that agencies and operations follow the rules.
Rättssäkerhet
That decisions are made according to law, equal for all, and can be foreseen and appealed.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.