Do you trust polititians?

Good day to you my reader!

During one of the sessions we had been discussing Political PR and the debating teams had crossed each other on whether "political PR has undermined public trust in politicians" and whether it "is the single biggest threat to our democratic health". This case made me think about the following: Do people still have enough trust in politicians?, What are the statistics?, How has it changed comparing to previous years? and What are the reasons?

Today trust is elusive. People once treated as experts have now lost their credentials and can not be trusted any longer. Many politicians say they operate in the public interest but do never fully disclose their own agendas and motives. Often the roles they perform in the political structure are unrevealed as well. Such "closed" authority's intentions cannot represent the public interest, but are efficiently promoting themselves through compelling influencers' speeches, motivations and fictions. Democracy's face is damaged because of similar politicians' reputation and actions. But how dramatic is the question?

Having made a bit of research I found out that trust in politicians is nowadays as as ever and that only 13% of people in the UK "trust politicians to tell the truth" according to an October 2009 poll by Ipsos Mori. The given reasons for that are: "the stories in the press", unreasonable and not trustworthy behavior, politicians are "out of touch with the needs of people", "too many promises that haven't been fulfilled". To read more: "Trusted" professions asked about faith in politicians.

Moreover I found the Edelman Trust Barometer - the 2010 Annual Global Opinion Leaders Study - which is a very curious document reporting globally a modest increase of trust in government, business and a CEO as a spokesperson for a company, and a decline of trust in media.

So how can people trust politicians if they are not being honest? How comes that their policy often changes when they win the elections? Of course we cannot generalize and call all politicians "liers" or "spin doctors", but the actions of a few damage the reputation of a 100. Citizens should say their concerns and disagreement aloud otherwise we will get only more untruthful politicians to threat our democratic health.