This rapid review of selective academic and practice-based literatures has helped us to establish the constituent elements of an analytical framework for identifying the drivers of trust in government services and, by implication, the barriers and potential enablers to service delivery. As Figure 3 illustrates, we hypothesize that public trust in government services is driven by a combination of demand and supply-side factors that shape service expectations and satisfaction.
The critical demand-side factors include citizen perceptions derived from direct personal and network experiences of service provision. These perceptions are also informed by socio-economic, political and environmental factors. The critical supply-side factors include citizen perceptions of the service culture, organisational capacity and capability and experience.
These demand and supply-side factors can be understood as a series of micro-contracts between government and citizen that either undermine or promote trust in government services depending on the quality of service provision and the changing environmental context.
