Trust in Public Life

By James Hawkey, Anthony Ball, Anna Rowlands and 2 more

A deep and thoughtful reflection on trust in the context of public life.

Trust in Public Life is a collection of essays addressing the importance of trust in public life and how public servants can engender and sustain it. In “The Roots of Trust,” Anna Rowlands argues that our loss of trust is a feature of modernity that can only be solved through encounters with real people. In “Trust in Oneself,” Claire Gilbert makes the case that leaders need to have self-trust and confidence to rule. In “Trust in Institutions,” Anthony Ball offers a guide to rebuilding trust in institutions through four virtues: honesty, humility, compassion, and competence. Finally, in “Trust in People,” James Hawkey argues that trust between groups is a choice, not something that can be injected like a vaccine. Together, the essays offer valuable reflections on trust in public life, agreeing that it must be engendered, and offer guidance on how this might be achieved.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Haus Publishing
• Release date: Oct 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781913368760

Book preview

Introduction

Claire Gilbert

A former cabinet minister told me that whenever he was in post and under fire for some perceived government misdemeanour, the trick was not to ignore the criticism and anger, nor simply to apologise, but to come to Parliament and explain, in minute detail, what had happened and why. He said that in this way, there would be no lies told, no responsibility evaded, but everyone listening would become lost in the detail, bored by the monologue, and the anger would dissipate. A clever method and on the face of it laudable: but is the heart of the matter drowned in an ocean of words? And although this is undoubtedly transparency, does it restore trust?

Onora O’Neill, whose famous 2002 Reith Lectures are cited several times in this book, did not think so. As Anna Rowlands observes, it is a reduction in deception and lies rather than a reduction in (mere) secrecy that is needed. In her essay, ‘The Roots of Trust’, Rowlands argues that the erosion of our trust in public figures and institutions is a specific feature of modernity, by which our lonely and sceptical selves fly solo. Artificial, abstract policies and procedures will not increase trust, according to Rowlands. It will only grow by means of actual encounters with real people and multiple loving acts of committed entrustment. James Hawkey agrees – trust can’t be injected like a vaccine, he writes in his essay ‘Trust in People’. To trust is to risk, to become vulnerable, to place the centre of our universe somewhere other than ourselves. This is the challenge of our age: to incubate trust, solidarity, and truthfulness as habits that do not need to be defended. Anthony Ball, in ‘Trust in Institutions’, makes a case for the institutional and individual habits that must be inculcated to do this: being honest with an intelligent, not an indiscriminate, openness; having the humility to question whether one’s institution is offering the right answers or addressing the needs of the public; manifesting compassion – people trust those with whom they have most contact, the front-line staff, far more than faceless bureaucracies; and being competent. These virtues need commitment and to be energetically cultivated, as in the hard work of a gardener, to generate trust.

Trust in oneself, in institutions, and in each other is an activity, not a state. Perfection is not, and could not, be the goal. In my essay, ‘Trust in Oneself ‘, and Josie Rourke’s response we use the characters of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure to argue for the courage, the act of trust, to walk towards the uncertainty of self-knowledge and learn self-trust there, in the fallible mix of good and bad that humans are. Trust is to be found in the flickering light of the attempt to live well, which usually fails, says Rowlands. Hawkey urges a ‘gratuitous’ solidarity that sustains trust amid flux and disagreement. Transactional solidarity will not do this. As with the virtues espoused by Ball, these are not visions of utopia but endeavours, made among and with each other.

The essays in this book are edited versions of lectures given in Westminster Abbey in the spring of 2022. Together they provide deep reflections on the nature of trust in the context of public life, agreeing that it cannot be engendered in the abstract or by force, but only through real encounters. They offer guidance on how to make those encounters generative of lasting trust, whether they be within oneself, between people, or within institutions and among the people they serve. ‘It is our responsibility to face the troubling and difficult things within our problem selves,’ Rourke writes. ‘And to move forward in the hope of a more honest and compassionate life, self, and – perhaps – story.’

Trust in Oneself

Claire Gilbert

This essay and Josie Rourke’s response use the play Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare as a guide. The wisdom drawn from the play does not depend upon you knowing it, but for clarity, the plot can be summarised thus. It is set in the city-state of Vienna. Duke Vincentio, who rules the city, has decided to withdraw from public office because he has not successfully enforced the city’s strict laws and thinks he does not have the strength of will to do so. In his place he appoints Angelo, who is ascetic, chaste, self-disciplined, and iron-willed. As governor, Angelo enforces the law mercilessly: the brothels are closed and extramarital fornication is punished with death. The nobleman Claudio is to be executed for sleeping with his betrothed, and his sister, the nun Isabella, supplicates Angelo for his life. Lust for Isabella awakens in Angelo’s heart, and he tells her he will free Claudio if she sleeps with him. The Duke, who has remained in Vienna disguised as a monk, arranges to deceive Angelo by sending Mariana, Angelo’s former betrothed, whom he cruelly rejected on account of her dowry, to sleep with him in Isabella’s stead. Angelo, despite having, as he thinks, slept with Isabella, does not release Claudio, but the gaoler, again prompted by the disguised Duke, sends a different man’s head to Angelo, pretending it is Claudio’s. The Duke reveals himself, Angelo’s perfidy is made public, and yet Mariana pleads for clemency. Isabella joins her, and Angelo is set