Section III: Citizens Trust on Institutions

Section III: Citizens' Trust on Institutions

The chapters in Section III reflect conceptualizations of trust from an individual's viewpoint. In Chapter 6 Kai rni, Saana Kaleva, Soile Hirvasniemi, and Terttu Kortelainen provide an interesting view of trust in new types of institutions in the new economy and global economy, namely electronic commerce (e-commerce). The authors analyze individuals' trust in information systems, used for selling products via the Internet, enhanced by the usability of websites of vendors. The perspective is mainly based on consumers' cognitions of trust. The authors emphasize that the questions of risk and threats have to be taken into account when trust is considered in e-commerce. Basic literature on how usability of websites can contribute to trust building in e-commerce is thoughtfully analyzed and a pilot study designed for testing the ideas empirically through consumers' perceptions is discussed. It is interesting that some of the reasons the authors found for mistrust are not supported by the previous empirical studies exploring consumers' perceptions of trust in e-commerce. This makes one wonder whether these differences are influenced by the cultural, political and economical system of Finland, whose specific features in the context of a political system were highlighted by the study on citizens' trust in ministries in the next chapter.

In Chapter 7 Risto Harisalo and Jari Stenvall highlight citizens' attitudes and perceptions of trust towards public administration (the Ministries in Finland) based on their empirical study. Government and ministries are organizations which should base their activities and decisions on up-to-date, correct, reliable and verifiable information and knowledge. Further, their functioning should be transparent and trustworthy. Harisalo and Stenvall state that a certain degree of trust is necessary to make democracy to work. Their empirical study adds to the existing knowledge about Finnish society and about the crucial aspect in the relationship between citizens and their public institutions, i.e., the deficit of trust. The chapter also highlights what is happening to our democratic institutions in the information society. The results of the empirical study are socially important, and raise many interesting questions.