$1.8 mil grant will fund research on erosion of trust in governments

Pitt researchers just received a grant to try to answer one of the most critical questions facing governments today.

Pitt’s School of Public and International Affairs recently began a $1.8-million grant-funded project headed by the school’s Center for Governance and Markets to analyze the electorate’s waning trust in the public sector at the domestic and international levels. Local legislators said the research targets a pressing issue. 

CGM director and SPIA professor Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, a co-leader of the three-year project, believes governments depend on cooperation with people who trust them, and those that struggle with cooperation “struggle to deliver.”

“When people expect institutions to be unresponsive or unfair, that cooperation becomes harder,” Murtazashvili said.

Murtazashvili said the project, which is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, will support case studies, research, teaching materials, policy briefs, open-access books and opportunities for early-career scholars, calling it both a research and educational initiative.

Murtazashvili and the CGM had previously received an award from the foundation for a project exploring how plural societies sustain cooperation amid profound disagreement, focusing on differences that are “unavoidable features of modern life” such as religion, ethnicity, morals and ideology.

She said this work led to this recent grant because it showcased the CGM “as ahead of the curve in terms of work on polarization” and its ability to “deliver on big and bold ideas that are important to society.” The new project builds on the foundation of the last project but is set apart by its initiative to bring fresh, outside perspectives into the academic work by including public servants and community leaders.

“Their experiences should help shape the questions we ask,” Murtazashvili said. “There is a great deal to learn from people who are trying to make institutions work every day.”

Murtazashvili said the involvement of public servants will manifest in bringing them to Pitt through lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences.

Pennsylvania State Senator Wayne Fontana, who represents the 42nd district encompassing the southwestern Pittsburgh region, praised the project, saying that the government must have the trust of the governed to be effective.

“What makes the United States unique among nations is that the government’s authority is granted to it by its citizens — not by the succession of a ruling family or by the strength of a military commander or by blessing of religious leaders,” Fontana said.

He believes the study will examine the issue in a nuanced way, noting that in his 25 years as an elected official, he has seen people lack confidence in certain areas of the government rather than mistrusting the entire public sector.

“For the record, the private sector isn’t doing too hot in the public’s eyes either right now,” Fontana said.

Erika Strassburger, a Pittsburgh city councilmember representing the eighth district encompassing Oakland, Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, highlighted Pitt and other research institutions’ ability to use their impartial perspective to identify patterns that could lead to public distrust, which she believes governments at all levels often do poorly.

“We can all have our theories as to why the public’s trust in the government is eroding, but having a research institution help us along with that and give us some level of assessment or even instructions would be incredibly useful,” Strassburger said.

Strassburger said she battles the issue of trust “nearly every single day,” adding that representing her constituents sometimes feels like a “Sisyphean task.”

“You deliver for the public day to day,” Strassburger said. “It’s really important to earn trust in democracy and in public government in drips and drabs, over time.”

Pennsylvania State Representative Dan Frankel, who represents the 23rd district encompassing Squirrel Hill and parts of Oakland, said Pitt has a chance to help with what he believes is one of the most urgent issues of our time.

“When people trust government, they show up.They come to the town hall, they call the office, and they hold their elected leaders accountable,” Frankel said. “Constituents who believe we’re acting in good faith give us room to take on hard problems together, and good policy gets a fair hearing.”