When Trust Becomes Visible Institutional Capacity

Published on 29 June 2026, the OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2026 Results draws on evidence from 33 OECD member countries and five accession candidate countries. The report examines five dimensions of public governance, reliability, responsiveness, integrity, openness and fairness and finds that only 31% of respondents believe that people like them can influence what government does.

The significance of this diagnosis extends, however, beyond the levels of trust observed.

Institutions do not produce only decisions, services or public policies. They also generate predictability, legitimacy and conditions for cooperation that shape how public action is received, interpreted and translated into practice. These effects, although less visible than immediate administrative outputs, profoundly influence the institutional capacity available to govern with effectiveness, continuity and public confidence.

Trust does not replace coordination, monitoring or accountability. It can, however, strengthen the conditions under which these mechanisms operate: reducing uncertainty between actors, fostering cooperation, expanding the capacity to mobilise collective action and reinforcing institutional coherence in increasingly complex environments.

In this sense, trust constitutes a form of institutional capital. It cannot be created by proclamation, nor restored through communication alone. It accumulates when authority is exercised coherently, procedures remain intelligible, commitments are sustained, mistakes are acknowledged and corrected, and participation is connected to channels capable of producing meaningful consequences in public decision-making.

Such capital is cumulative, but not irreversible: it may require years of institutional consistency to build and deteriorate rapidly when public experience contradicts declared commitments.

For public and institutional decision-makers, the implication is clear and exacting.

Strengthening trust does not mean asking citizens for greater deference to institutions. It means building institutions whose capacity to decide, implement, learn and respond makes that trust rationally justifiable.

In a complex system, trust neither dispenses with governance nor substitutes for institutional capacity. It reveals the quality with which governance is exercised and institutional capacity is sustained, expanding the institutional margin through which formal authority can be translated into legitimate, coordinated and sustainable collective action.

OECD (2026). OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2026 Results.