Foreword

While Finnish citizens’ trust in their government and public institutions is relatively high, recent trends and emerging challenges have underscored the importance of maintaining and strenghtening this trust to ensure a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its socioeconomic impact. This report analyses public trust in Finland using a framework developed by the OECD comprising 5 drivers grouped under two dimensions, government competence and government values.

This report is the result of a close collaboration between the OECD and the Public Management Department of the Finnish Minister of Finance. It is the second in the series of OECD trust case studies, which began with Korea in 2018. It is thus the first case study developed in the context of COVID-19. It has been informed and enriched by a revision of the OECD analytical and measurement instruments carried out via the OECD webinar series “Building a New Paradigm for Public Trust”, which brought together practitioners, academics and experts in the field of public trust. The report is based on a comprehensive population survey, a series of interviews with different stakeholders, and a workshop on the preliminary findings.

Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions in Finland emphasizes the importance of adapting services to meet people’s needs and expectations as well as improving government preparedness and co-ordination for coping with future challenges. It also stresses the need to bring distrustful segments of the population on board for maintaining social cohesion and ensuring Finnish democratic continuity The study provides a detailed set of recommendations to guide public institutions in reinforcing public trust in Finland.

The Trust Study was declassified by the Public Governance Committee on 12 April 2021.