The ability of governments and the global community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, ensure security, and promote adherence to basic standards of human rights depends on people's trust in their government. One of the challenges in promoting that trust is engaging citizens, especially marginalized groups and the poor. Where governance processes are exclusionary and basic services are not accessible, intrastate conflicts and violence within the country can negatively impact national and global security and peace. Weak systems and processes of governance tend to erode trust in government. Within this context, the issue of how to build trust in government and between socioeconomic actors has become an important issue in both developed and developing economies.

This book seeks to answer questions raised about how to strengthen trust in government within the Asia-Pacific region. Through analyses of trends within NortheastAsia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Islands, and specific innovations and reforms at the country level, the contributors offer various perspectives on the causes of the decline in trust, on countries and institutions that have managed to maintain higher degrees of confidence, and on governance innovations and practices that have played an important role in strengthening trust once it has faltered.

Contributors include Peride K. Blind (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs), Ledivina V. Cariño (former professor and dean, University of the Philippines), Gerard A. Finin (East-West Center's Pacific Islands Development Program), Sukehiro Hasegawa (Hosei University Tokyo and United Nations University), Byong Seob Kim (Presidential Committee on Government Innovation & Decentralization, Republic of Korea, and Seoul National University), Pan Suk Kim (Yonsei University, South Korea), Sajjad Naseer (Lahore School of Economics), Meredith Rowen (East-West Center), Prijono Tjiptoherijanto (University of Indonesia), and Teresa Wright (California State University-Long Beach and East-West Center).