Do your institutions trust you?

Introducing the Tightrope Trust Index

The question no one asks

We measure citizen trust in institutions every year. But no one has measured the reverse — how much institutional trust is placed in the citizen.

Until now.

A growing asymmetry

Citizens are surveilled, verified, scored, and assessed at scale. The systems that govern daily life make assumptions about the people they serve — often before a single interaction has taken place.

The inversion

What if we measured trust from the other direction — not how much citizens trust institutions, but how much institutions trust citizens?

The Tightrope Trust Index

A new analytical framework for measuring institutional trust in the public — the assumptions behind the systems, and what those assumptions reveal about the relationship between power and the people it governs.

What we measure

Surveillance & monitoring

How extensively do institutions observe citizens — and what does the scope of that observation assume about public behaviour?

Verification & burden of proof

How much must a citizen prove to access the services and rights they are entitled to — and where does the burden of proof fall?

Algorithmic decision-making

When automated systems assess, score, or classify citizens — what assumptions are encoded in their design?

Civic autonomy & participation

How much space do institutions leave for citizen judgement, initiative, and self-governance?

Why “Tightrope”?

Every society walks a line between necessary limits and corrosive suspicion. Governance requires boundaries — but when those boundaries are defined by mistrust, something structural begins to fail. The Tightrope Trust Index measures where that line falls.

A tool for governance, research, and accountability

The Tightrope Trust Index provides a structured, comparable framework for governments, civil society, researchers, and international organisations to assess and benchmark institutional trust in citizens — across countries, sectors, and time.

Restoring the balance

When institutions trust their citizens, societies are more resilient, governance is more legitimate, and the social contract holds. The Tightrope Trust Index makes that relationship visible — and measurable.

The Tightrope Trust Index

A mirror held up to power — and the trust it places in those it governs.