Civic Trust and Governance in Armenia

Abstract

"Trust is the key for productive economy and business."-Tigran Sargsyan, Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia1"Honesty is more important than oil. If Armenia's judiciary system is not corrupted and it takes equitable solutions then this will certainly promote [the] country's economic growth."-Steven Ekovich, American University of Paris2Why do people not trust their government? Nye and his colleagues3 raised this key question in their diagnosis of what is wrong with American political institutions. Miller4 warned of increasing political cynicism and distrust among citizens in the early 1970s. Lipset and Schneider5 analyzed historical trends of declining political trust, comparing business, labor, and government; they maintained that a "confidence gap" existed across diverse institutional sectors in America and that the gap began widening in the 1960s. According to Nye and his colleagues, only one-fourth of Americans trusted the government at the end of the 1990s, whereas in the mid-1960s, three-fourths of Americans trusted the government. Concerns about declining public confidence in both political and civil institutions begin with the assumption that support and trust are essential for functional institutions in a democratic society. Currently, the United States is not the only country concerned with declining public confidence in institutions. In their edited volume comparing public attitudes concerning democracy in the United States, European countries, and Japan, Pharr and Putnam6 reported that declining institutional confidence plagued almost all the aforementioned countries. They summarize this situation as "disaffected democracies." It is ironic that democracies face a strong internal threat in decreasing confidence among their citizens.The situation is even worse for the countries that democratized recently. South Korea provides another case of rapid decline in public confidence in political and civil institutions. 7 According to the World Value Survey results, Koreans' confidence in their Parliament declined from 70 to 15 percent between 1981 and 2001, while confidence in the courts and civil servants declined from 80 to 45 percent during the same period. Survey results show that Korean "democracy in the aftermath of democratization"8 shows symptoms of general crises.9Recent studies show that postcommunist societies suffer from a lack of public confidence in all institutions, and particularly in political institutions.10 In Poland, for example, peoples' confidence in the Parliament and the government, which had previously shown a high level of 85 and 65 percent between 1989 and 1993, respectively, fell to a low of 20 percent within five years.11This article concentrates on Armenia, a country that gained its independence only fifteen years ago. Armenia, which is in the South Caucasus, neighbors Georgia, Turkey, and Iran. Political stability of the countries situated in this region is vital for the region and for oildependent countries. Lack of trust toward the newly established democratic institutions impedes their development, hindering overall development.Survey MethodologyThe Institute for Honesty and Integrity conducted the survey between February 2004 and March 2005 in the following six cities: Yerevan, Berd, Yeghvard, Gyumri, Gavar, and Vanadzor and surveyed a total of one thousand respondents. The margin error of is 3.2 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.All of the aforementioned cities, except Yerevan, were randomly selected. Yerevan was manually selected because it is the capital, as well as the largest city in Armenia. The total number of questionnaires was proportionately distributed, taking into consideration the official data on de jure urban population.The questionnaires, which were written in Armenian, included close-ended, single, and multiple-choice questions. The fifty-one questions were technically designed to minimize confusion. …