Opportunities of trust in welfare management: From hierarchy and market to morality and social relations

Abstract

Models for the development of Danish welfare continue to draw on trust as an important resource. This is expressed in efforts to promote debureaucratization, self-management and emancipatory governance. But what kind of trust are we talking about when we talk about trust in the public sector? The starting point of this article is that trust is not a singular entity but is expressed in different ways that are rooted in different models of public management and governance and their underlying assumptions. Thus, it is argued that the functioning of trust can be summarized in four paradigms: institutional trust, economic trust, moral trust and relational trust. The article presents the analytical, managerial and governance-related insights associated with the four paradigms and their interplay and makes suggestions for a relationally oriented research agenda on public trust.