In the latest OECD's Government at a Glance report they document the amount of trust each country's people have in their governments. As you can see, in only 5 countries is there a majority of people that have confidence in their own government. I think it is fair to assume that non-OECD countries would have even lower trust in government as it would include the many underdeveloped countries where open corruption occurs.
So, in the aggregate not trusting the government is the majority opinion throughout the world and having trust in government is the strange and marginal viewpoint. If people were given the choice I think it is clear that they would choose not to engage with an institution that they do not trust and have little to no confidence in.
I also found it interesting that there seems to be no correlation between trust in government and the overall economic success of the country.
What conclusions do you think can be made from these findings?