Trust, local governance and quality of public service in EU regions and cities

The aim of this report is to present the within-country variability in the EU citizens' perceptions of the generalised and institutional trust, quality of public service and local governance based on their experiences and opinions expressed in three surveys. By within-country variability we understand differences in citizens' perceptions between cities or between cities and towns, suburbs and rural areas. We deal with the citizens' opinions expressed in the surveys we used. The within-country variability in EU citizens' perceptions of the trust, corruption, local governance and quality of public service and governance are investigated using several composites presenting the differences in citizens' perceptions from three different perspectives and using three different data sets. First, with the European quality of life survey, we explore the level of general trust, institutional trust and quality of public service in different with respect to degree of urbanisation areas in the EU countries. Second, with the Social Diagnosis survey, we examine the level of general trust and attitude towards free riding in 27 of the largest Polish cities. Finally, using data from the World Justice Project we investigate perceptions of law enforcement, generalised and institutional trust, corruption, bribing and performance of the local government in 58 of the largest EU cities. Our results showed that in general, there are differences in measured phenomena between EU countries, and especially within EU countries in relation to the degree of urbanisation and at city level.