Abstract
This study examines how government trustworthiness, a core democratic value, shapes collaboration between citizens and public officials in coproduction. Existing research often treats public trust in government as an outcome of coproduction, but we argue that trustworthiness is a precondition for meaningful democratic engagement. Using paired survey experiments with representative samples of U.S. citizens and municipal officials, we randomly varied information about government trustworthiness in a disaster resilience scenario. Participants then reported their willingness to coproduce and their expectations of the other side’s willingness. Results show that government trustworthiness increases citizens’ willingness to coproduce because it strengthens their expectations that officials will value public input, and this mechanism explains 74 percent of the total effect. In contrast, officials show high baseline support for coproduction regardless of trust levels. The study also identifies misperceptions between citizens and officials as a democratic challenge and offers practical insights to address it.
Figure 5: Mediation effects of the other side’s expected behaviors
