Trust operates across different levels of governance, forming a precondition and at the same time a consequence of well-functioning regulatory policies. It is therefore essential to explore the complex web of trust relationships between different actors within regulatory systems.
In TiGRE, we challenge the conventional view that trust solely pertains to the relationships between citizens and elected officials. Instead, we emphasize the need to scrutinize trust dynamics among various actors involved in the regulatory process, including regulatory agencies and the regulated industries, among others.
TiGRE scrutinizes the trust levels in the regulatory regimes of these sectors across various governance levels, including regional, national, and European scales. To achieve this, TiGRE deals with the complex interactions between different actors engaged in the regulatory process, including administrative bodies, politicians, regulatory agencies, courts, firms, businesses, consumer groups, and the general public. To comprehensively understand these complex relationships, TiGRE employs a diverse array of research methods. These methods include large-scale surveys conducted through questionnaires, experiments, in-depth case studies, focus groups, and media content analysis.
The central conclusions drawn from the TiGRE project are twofold: firstly, the research indicates that trust in the core actors within regulatory regimes is generally higher than anticipated. However, there are identifiable variations across sectors and countries. Remarkably, regulatory regimes seem to be relatively insulated from the broader trends of declining political and institutional trust, likely due to their partial detachment from day-to-day politics and the expert-based legitimization strategies employed by regulatory authorities.
Secondly, the TiGRE project underscores the nuanced nature of trust, revealing that maximizing trust is not unconditionally desirable. Instead, a balanced approach that incorporates both trust and a certain degree of distrust proves beneficial. This cautious skepticism, manifested as a vigilant attitude among actors engaged with or impacted by regulatory regimes, enhances the capacity of trustors to place faith in genuinely trustworthy trustees while ensuring that this trust is not misplaced. In essence, adopting a "trust but verify" stance, which combines trust with a healthy dose of watchfulness, emerges as a more suitable approach than “blind” trust.
