News
Think piece on trust in Jersey politics published
The Policy Centre has published a think piece by its Senior Advisor Mark Boleat Restoring trust in Jersey politics. The paper analyses evidence from Jersey, the UK and internationally on the extent to which politicians are trusted. It draws on research by the OECD to suggest how trust in Jersey politics can be restored.
The executive summary of the paper is set out below –
Trust in the States Assembly and Jersey’s Government is low. Trust in the Assembly decreases the longer a person has been resident in Jersey. The lack of trust is not a new phenomenon; it has been consistently recorded since 2013.
The position in Jersey is little different from that in other jurisdictions. Politicians throughout the world are not trusted, unlike for example nurses and scientists.
Politicians are largely distrusted because of the nature of the work they do. Unlike nurses, any significant decision by a politician will be viewed unfavourably by some people. Also, politicians are held responsible for things over which they have no control.
There are some special factors in Jersey, reflected in the very low level of turnout in elections. They include confusion as to where responsibility for decisions lies and a policy making process that does not work well.
An OECD survey suggests that trust in government can be improved by better engagement with citizens, strengthening capacity to address complex policy challenges, supporting a healthy information ecosystem, investing in evidence-based communication and investing in improving perceptions of integrity in daily interactions and complex decision making.
Applying these principles to Jersey suggests the following actions would increase trust in the political system –
- Improving the consultation process in particular by having meaningful consultation with relevant organisations and not simply a call for views and a simplistic online poll.
- Requiring policy proposals to have impact assessments.
- Reducing the piecemeal approach to policy formulation. Many of the issues that Government has to deal with are complex and cut across several Government departments. Policy making has to be joined-up and always consider the big picture rather than take a narrow single issue approach.
- Publishing Government reports on the Government website in an easily accessible way.
- Publishing comprehensive data, particularly in respect of social security, housing, health and education.
