key: cord-0068165-n6oye172
authors: Vu, Van Thanh
title: Public Trust in Government and Compliance with Policy During COVID-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam
date: 2021-10-06
journal: Public Organiz Rev
DOI: 10.1007/s11115-021-00566-w
sha: c09b98c91cb3308f10c83b48b0380e710d3850a7
doc_id: 68165
cord_uid: n6oye172

This study explores how much the Vietnamese public trust their government during the COVID-19 pandemic and how public trust in government translates into support and compliance with government’s policy and regulation. The findings of the study show that there is a significant positive correlation between accessible, trustworthy communication and public trust in government. The findings also demonstrate a significantly moderate positive correlation between public trust in government and policy compliance. The more the public trust the government, the more likely they comply with government’s policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main objective of this study is to explore public trust in government in Vietnam. For several political and social reasons, the study to measure public trust in government in Vietnam has neither been empirically conducted nor the findings of such study, if any, have been released. General statements of public trust in government are more common than specific measurements. Thus, it is an opportunity for this study to fill in the blank, especially when public trust in government turns crucial to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The topic of public trust in government has become increasingly important as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged many countries in the world, including Vietnam. Until and unless the public trust the way their governments tackle the pandemic, the infections and deaths will stay high and continue to increase. If the public trust their governments, they will be more willing to support and comply with government's policy and regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Otherwise, noncompliance could result in serious consequences for the society such as the collapse of the healthcare system and social security.

Vietnam has gone through four waves of infections with the first from 23rd January to 16th April 2020, the second from 25th July to 1st December 2020, the third from 28th January to 25th March 2021 and the ongoing fourth from 27th April 2021. By early August 2021, 22 out of 63 provinces and central cities in Vietnam enforced lockdown to break the chain of infections (MOH, 2021a, b) . As of 2nd August 2021, there were 157,507 coronavirus infected cases in Vietnam in which 113,040 are currently treated in hospitals; 43,157 had already recovered and 1306 died (MOH, 2021a, b) . This is alarming as the number of coronavirus cases is over 42 times higher than that of 13th May 2021 when this manuscript was first drafted.

The fourth wave of infections is much more prolonged and complicated than the first three because of the multiple untraced sources of infections in the community and the surge of highly contagious Delta B.1.617.2. variant. The fourth outbreak of the pandemic is a challenge to both public healthcare capacity and trust in government. It is, therefore, extremely important to explore public trust in Vietnam's government during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to answer the following questions: Do the Vietnamese public trust their government during the COVID-19 pandemic? If so, how much? How is public trust translated into support and compliance with government's policy and regulation?

Trust is a multidimensional concept, which is approached from different disciplines and perspectives (Cook, 2001; Smith et al., 2013; Stern & Coleman, 2015) . Trust is considered as a facilitating factor for economic and social transactions (Fukuyama, 1995; Resnik, 2011; Rothstein, 2011) . Trust is also viewed as social capital, which is crucial in personal, occupational, and social domains (Szkudlarek & Biglieri, 2016; Six, Zimmeren, Popa, & Frison, 2015) . Trust is associated with distrust, risks, and vulnerabilities. Hawley (2012) argued that trust is closely related to "reliability, predictability, expectation, cooperation, goodwill" and at the same time "distrust, insincerity, conspiracy, betrayal, and incompetence."

Building trust is essential to effective governance, especially in complicated systems because it is regarded as "a means of reducing the complexity and risks that come from the autonomy and freedom of others" (Cerna, 2014) . Blinde (2007) pinpointed the causal links between trust and governance that trust feeds into good governance, and vice-versa. Walle and Migchelbrink (2020) argued that both outcomes and processes of public policy wield significant influence on public trust in government. If people trust their government, it will be less likely for government to resort to coercion, forcing people to follow the policies (Cairney & Wellstead, 2021; OECD, 2013) .

However, several scholars argued that trust is an ambiguous concept (Hooghe et al., 2017; Walle & Bouckaert, 2001) . Trust can be approached on personal, interpersonal, organizational, and social dimensions. It can be viewed differently in economic, political, and social settings. The concept of trust also varies from culture to culture. Kumagai and Iorio (2020) attributed the ambiguity of trust to the various approaches by scholars, who used "relational and situational elements and a combination of them."

Trust in government, particularly public trust in government during crisis has been a popular topic for theoretical and empirical research in public administration and communication. Several researches noted that public trust in government has steadily declined since 1960s (Edelman Hosking, 2019; Intelligence, 2018; PEW, 2019) . The declining trust in government is detrimental to public policy implementation as pointed out by OECD (2021a, b, c) that the absence of trust reduces the willingness of citizens and enterprises to comply with policies.

Public trust in government during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a burning topic since 2020. Different dimensions of public trust in government during the pandemic have been explored. Trust in government is important to the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic because it enhances public cooperation with government's measures (Condon & Sinha, 2010; Siegrist & Zingg, 2014) . Based on the "Swedish experiment" with COVID-19, Esaiasson et al. (2021) pointed out that during crisis such as war and pandemic, trust and support for government increase as the result of the rally-around-the-flag effects.

Trust in government is pivotal to the implementation of policies against the COVID-19 pandemic. Bavel et al. (2020) stated that higher level of trust in government results in more compliance with health policies such as ban on gatherings. Gozgor (2021) stated that public trust in government during the COVID-19 pandemic is required for "obtaining successful results of economic and social stimulus policies and providing full effect to slow down the rate of outbreaks." It is, therefore, worthwhile to explore how much the public trust the government and whether public trust is translated into support and compliance with government's policy and regulation with empirical evidence from Vietnam.

Within this study, public trust in government is people's confidence in government communication, policy, and regulation. A variety of factors affects public trust in government either in positive or negative direction. Trust in government can be attributed to demographics (Algan et al., 2016; Christensen & Laegreid, 2005) , satisfaction with public services and policies (Walle & Bouckaert, 2001; Gustavsen, Pierre, & Røiseland, 2017; Li, 2016) and media (Gordon, 2000; Moy & Scheufele, 2000) . Weible et al. (2020) stated that public trust in government depends on how government communicates technical and scientific information about the pandemic, which rationalizes government's policy choices.

In this study, the correlation between government communication, public trust in government and policy compliance is examined as in Fig. 1 . Effective government communication can explain the complicated pathogenesis of the COVID-19 pandemic and yield more confidence in government (Hood, 2006; OECD, 2020; Hyland-Wood, Gardner, Leask, & Ecker, 2021) . Only when people believe in government communication, will they trust government's intervention measures (Kim & Shim, 2020; Newton, 2020) . In Vietnam, mainstream media is legally set as the essential means of communication for the society and serves as the "voice of the Party and State organizations", and "forum of the people" (Legal Normative Documents, 2017). Due to this unique function, media occupies an important position in the society. By considering communication as a factor that influences public trust in government, the following hypothesis was developed.

Hypothesis 1 If people find government communication accessible and trustworthy, they will be more likely to trust the government (H1).The complicated and dangerous course of the COVID-19 pandemic requires governments to take radical intervention measures such as social distancing and lockdown. Public trust in government can influence people's willingness to support these measures to lower the rate of infection and fatality (Balog-Way & McComas, 2020; Enria, et al., 2021) . Without public support for government's preventive measures and anti-epidemic solutions, governments must resort to coercion and enforcement (Schmelz, 2021) . By considering trust in government as the driver of public support for government's measures and solutions, the following hypothesis was developed. Hypothesis 2 If people trust the government, they will be more likely to support government's measures and solutions (H2). H2a If people trust the government, they will be more likely to support government's preventive measures. H2b If people trust the government, they will be more likely to support government's financial relief and economic stimulus. H2c If people trust the government, they will be more likely to support government's anti-epidemic solutions. Hypothesis 2 Successful control of past pandemics such as SARS, H1N1 influenza and the ongoing the COVID-19 pandemic has been attributed to public cooperation with government's anti-epidemic policies and regulations (Abdullah & Kim, 2020; Deurenberg-Yap, et al., 2005; Prati et al., 2011) . Saechang, et al. (2021) pointed out that public trust is positively correlated to people's compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research proposed governments to build trust as a way to promote policy compliance from their citizens. Considering public trust in government as a factor that influences policy compliance, the following hypothesis was developed Hypothesis 3 If people trust the government, they will be more likely to comply with government's policy and regulation (H3).

To test the hypotheses, the survey includes mostly 5-point Likert scale questions, which require respondents to identify either their level of trust from "very low" to "very high" or their support for government's policy and regulation from "totally disagree" to "totally agree". The survey was constructed by analysing government's decrees, reports, resolutions, press releases and other documents about communication, policy, and regulation, which were retrieved from Government's portal (https:// chinh phu. vn) and Ministry of Health's (MOH) portal (https:// moh. gov. vn). The indicators of independent and dependent variables used in the survey are provided in Table 1 .

The survey was conducted online on Survey Monkey from 27th March to 19th July 2021 when the coronavirus had infected 58 out of 63 provinces and central cities in Vietnam. The online survey is the suitable method to get a big number of responses across the country when travelling is restricted amid rising infections. The survey was released to public via peers, email, Facebook, and other social media to get responses from people in the North, the Middle and the South of Vietnam. To protect the identities of the respondents, the "anonymous responses" setting in Survey Monkey was turned on. Respondents need to agree with informed consent on the front page before starting the survey. The data collected in Survey Monkey was then imported into SPSS 26 for analysis.

Invitation emails were also sent to private enterprises and non-governmental organizations (NGO). Mail list of private enterprises was created with yellow corporate directory. Mail list of NGOs was created from the directory of Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (http:// vusta. vn) and NGO Resource Centre (https:// www. ngoce ntre. org. vn). Specifically, over 1,200 emails were sent to NGOs and 104 responses were received. Hundreds of emails from both private enterprises and NGOs were bounced back. According to official statistics, in the first 6 months of 2021, about 70,000 enterprises went out of business or suspended their operation (General Statistics Office, 2021).

The average duration to complete the survey is 7 min. 1260 responses were accepted for analysis after removing 430 responses, which were completed in less than 7 min. The sample includes mainly respondents from the public sector and The consistent direction to all the ministries, agencies and provinces is to fight the pandemic strongly, effectively with the slogan "to fight the pandemic is like to fight against foreign invaders."

We must make sure that infected patients, including foreign ones are not left unattended and are quickly cured

The government is consistent with the "dual objectives", that is to promote production, boost economic growth at the same time to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and prevent potential outbreaks In the survey, the respondents were requested to identify their main sources of information about the COVID-19 pandemic. The respondents' most common source of information is television (76.3%), closely followed by social media (76%). The two popular social media in Vietnam are Facebook and Zalo with the latter as the Vietnamese-made platform. MOH created their official account on Zalo, which sent out about 3.5 billion messages about the COVID-19 pandemic to people in 2020 (Yen, 2020a (Yen, , 2020b . This official account also provides updates of pandemic developments, prevention guidelines, and patient support. As in Table 3 , the respondents get information about the COVID-19 pandemic mostly from mainstream media such as television, online newspapers, national portals and text messages, which are coordinated by the government. 

The respondents were requested to identify their level of trust in government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic on a 5-point Likert scale with 1 as "very low" and 5 as "very high". Table 4 shows the percentage of respondents by their levels of trust in government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that more people trust government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic than those who don't. 50.5% and 37.1% of respondents reported having very high and high level of trust in government respectively. 0.3 and 7.3% reported having low and very low level of trust in the government respectively while 4.8% stayed neutral. Overall, the Vietnamese public trust in government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic is higher than high (M = 4.23, SD = 1.08). The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run to examine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the means of independent groups. Table 5 summarizes the results of the one-way ANOVA and shows that there were no statistically significant differences between group means of different residence region, different gender, different age, different education, and different health condition (p > .05). However, the one-way ANOVA determined a statistically significant difference in the mean trust in government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic by respondents of different workplaces (F(5,1254) = 2.666, p = 0=.021). Respondents from the public sector have the highest trust in government (M = 4.35, SD = 1.11), followed by workers in industrial parks (M = 4.34, SD = 0=.85), freelancers (M = 4.24, SD = 0=.95), and the retired and the unemployed (M = 4.14, SD = 1.10) while those from the third sector have the lowest trust in government (M = 4.08, SD = 1.02). Figure 2 shows the mean levels of trust in government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic by respondents of different workplaces.

The Cronbach's alpha and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were run to examine the reliability of the following variables: accessible and trustworthy communication; trust in government's statements about the pandemic; support for preventive measures; support for financial relief and economic stimulus; support for anti-epidemic solutions and compliance with anti-epidemic policy and regulation. Table 6 summarizes the results of the Cronbach's alpha and EFA. All of them were found reliable as their Cronbach's alpha is above 0.6; the smallest corrected item-total correlation is over 0.3; the average variance extracted (AVE) is over 50% and similar items correspond with one another. The mean and standard deviation of these variables were computed for further correlation test as in Table 7 . The variable of public trust in government is computed by taking the average of trust in government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and trust in government's statements. The "Bivariate" function in SPSS was run to test the correlation between independent variables and dependent variable. If the correlation is significant (p < 0=.05), we can further determine if it is positive or negative with the correlation coefficient. The correlations less than 0.3 are considered weak; greater than 0.7 are considered strong while anything between 0.3 and 0.7 are considered moderate (Cohen, 1988) .

It was predicted that if people find government communication accessible and trustworthy, they will be more likely to trust the government. A product-moment Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to evaluate the relationship between There was a moderate, positive correlation between the two variables (r = 0=.370, N = 1260) and the relationship was significant (p < 0=.001). The easier people find to access and evaluate government communication, the more likely they trust the government. Thus, hypothesis 1 is supported.

It was also predicted that if people trust the government, they will be more likely to support government's preventive measures, financial relief and economic stimulus, and anti-epidemic solutions. A product-moment Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between trust in government and support for these measures and solutions. There was a moderate, positive correlation between trust in government and support for preventive measures (r = 0=.443, N = 1260); trust in government and support for financial relief and economic stimulus (r = 0=.358, N = 1260); and trust in government and support for anti-epidemic solutions (r = 0=.404, N = 1260). All these relationships were significant (p < 0=.001). Thus, hypotheses 2a, 2b, and 2c are supported.

In addition, it was predicted that if people trust the government, they will be more likely to comply with government's policy and regulation. A product-moment Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between public trust in government and their policy compliance. There was a moderate, positive relationship between these two variables (r = 0=.367, N = 1260) and the relationship was significant (p < 0=.001). Thus, hypothesis 3 is supported. Table 8 summarizes the results of the hypotheses test, which correspond to the theoretical model of the study.

Trust in government has become increasingly important in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic as countries around the world continue to witness the widespread of the Delta variant, which requires governments to take unconventional and unprecedented measures. Several researches and policy briefs pointed out that building trust is essential to manage health crisis as the more people trust the government, the more willingly they comply with government's policy and regulation. Public trust in government enhances the effectiveness of pandemic management and effective pandemic management increases trust in government (Goldfinch et al., 2021) .

The coronavirus is an invisible enemy that must be conquered with transparent communication and scientific knowledge. Due to inadequate scientific knowledge of the coronavirus, several countries have taken trial and error responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientific information is essential to defeat misinformation, disinformation and mal-information. Deslatte (2020) reasoned that as citizens are overwhelmed with information, they find it difficult to distinguish "facts from fallacy." Therefore, government communication about the pandemic should be as accessible, trustworthy, transparent and consistent as possible.

In this study, it was hypothesized that if people find government communication accessible and trustworthy, they will be more likely to trust the government. The findings of the study show that there was a significant, positive correlation between accessible and trustworthy communication and public trust in government (r = .370, p < .001). The easier people find to approach and evaluate government communication, the more likely they trust the government. Effective government As all the media organizations in Vietnam are under the leadership of the government while misinformation and disinformation on social media are strictly regulated by the Cybersecurity Law, communication about the COVID-19 pandemic was coordinated by the government. While mainstream media is the official source of information, social media acts as an open forum for public debate about policies. As pointed out in Table 3 , the respondents relied on mainstream media for authoritative information about the pandemic. This is Vietnam's unique difference and advantage in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other countries, who have only private media.

Trust in government is people's confidence in what the government says and does or in how the government delivers on their promises. Communication can cause public trust in government either flourish or diminish, depending on the harmony of government's words and actions. Therefore, it is important to nurture public trust in government with not only accessible and trustworthy communication but also effective policy implementation. Trust increases when the government says and does the right thing at the right time. Easton (1965) regarded public trust in government as the confidence in the government's capacity "to do what is right and perceived fair."

The findings of this study show that 87.6% of respondents trust the government, compared to 7.6% of those who don't and trust in government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic is high (M = 4.23, SD = 1.08). This study found that the workplace of the respondents influenced how much they trust the government. As determined by the one-way ANOVA, there was a statistically significant difference between respondents of different workplaces (F(5,1254) = 2.666, p = .021). Respondents from the public sector trust the government the most while those from the third sector trust the government the least. The more independent the respondents are from the government, the less they trust the government.

Other demographic characteristics such as residence region, gender, age, health condition and education did not make any difference to respondents' trust in government. It is a limitation of this study not to include income as a factor that might influence respondents' trust in government. It would have been interesting to explore if and how respondents' income change during the COVID-19 pandemic influences their trust in government.

This study was implemented when the first three outbreaks in Vietnam were successfully controlled and the fourth started to ravage the country. Therefore, its findings should be attributed to the outcome of the first three waves, rather than the fourth. The Delta variant of the coronavirus has caused the fourth much worse with escalating infections and mortality. Public trust in government during the COVID-19 pandemic is not static and can be challenged by the severity of the pandemic and the competence of government to protect people's life, ensure social security, and maintain economic growth.

Public support for and compliance with government's policy are both means and ends to pandemic management. Governments around the world took different strategies to achieve public cooperation with preventive measures and anti-epidemic policies. Successful pandemic management requires mass support and compliance from each citizen as the COVID-19 is a communicable disease, which can easily and quickly spread from one to others. Pak et al. (2021) pointed out that the effectiveness of pandemic management depends on how much people follow public health policies and regulations, which is influenced by their weight of costs and benefits.

This study hypothesized that if people trust the government, they will be more likely to support government's measures and solutions, which include preventive measures, financial relief and economic stimulus, and anti-epidemic solutions. The findings of the study demonstrate that there was a significant and positive correlation between public trust in government and support for preventive measures (r = .443, p < .001); public trust in government and support for financial relief and economic stimulus (r = .358, p < .001), and public trust in government and support for antiepidemic solutions (r = .404, p < .001).

It was further hypothesized that if people trust the government, they will be more likely to comply with government's policy and regulation. The findings of the study demonstrate that there was a significant and positive correlation between public trust in government and policy compliance (r = .367, p < .001). The more people trust the government, the more likely they comply with government's policy and regulation. Even though significant, the correlation between public trust in government and public support for and compliance with policies are found to be moderate, rather than strong.

Public trust in government is important in time of crisis, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic the worst health crisis in the twenty-first century. Trust in government is the driver for public support and compliance with government's policy and regulation, which is essential for successful pandemic management. Effective policy communication and implementation lead to public trust in government meanwhile trust in government results in citizens' support for and compliance with government's policy. The public trust in Vietnam's government during the COVID-19 pandemic is a good showcase for this relationship.

Vietnam has been considered as one of the successful countries in the world to deal with the pandemic with low infection, high recovery, and limited mortality during the first three outbreaks from early 2020 to March 2021. As of 9th January 2021, Vietnam was ranked second after New Zealand by the Lowy Institute (2021) with regards to performance in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the escalating fourth outbreak can be another difficult test for Vietnam's government to maintain public trust, which demands further study.

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Van Thanh Vu is the senior lecturer at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, a leading institution in political theory and communication in Vietnam. His main research interests include the relationship between media and politics, policy communication and media literacy