WHAT CREATES TRUST FOR AN AUTHORITY. A qualitative comparative case study between authorities in Sweden

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is how authorities communicate their mission in order to create trust and legitimacy among the citizens. The authorities that have been studied for this reason is the Swedish National Tax Board, the Swedish Public Employment Service and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. They have been chosen on the premises of their rankings in the public opinion, where we find of the Public Employment Service and the Social Insurance Agency in the bottom of these while the National Tax Board is always in the top of these surveys. Therefore the point of departure of this thesis claims that apparently the National Tax Board must do something different compared to the other two authorities. The research method is a qualitative comparative multiple-case study; this design conducts studying cases by using more or less identical methods. The design contains the logic of comparison between the three authorities and the instructions they receive from the government in terms of the appropriation warrants and the annual reports that the authorities present. The thesis builds on the classical theoretical approaches regarding the trust and trustworthiness theory by Levi and Stoker and the legitimacy theory by Tom Tyler. The theoretical framework that is used in the thesis is designed and built upon the trustworthiness dimensions made by Levi and Stoker. The findings of this study confirms the previous research that the authorities communicates that the citizens/customers shall view their actions as appropriate, just, legal and efficient to name a few and in that aspect - but to what extent differs a lot. An important finding is that the instructions from the government differs a lot and can be seen as something that as well affects the trust for the authorities. The result also shows that the Tax Board do communicate differently compared to the Public Employment Service and the Social Insurance Agency in order to achieve trust and legitimacy among the citizens.