Public sector modernization has focused on achieving greater efficiency within the institutions and agencies of the state. In comparison, the relationship between citizen and state as a basis for service improvement has received less attention. This paper describes a study that helps to redress this balance by exploring the role that trust can play as a mechanism of accountability of the state to the citizen and, as a consequence, improving their mutual cooperation. This poses a challenge for the state – to be trusted by the citizen requires being trustworthy in the eyes of the citizen. Establishing the citizen's view of the characteristics of the trustworthy state, and how this differs from the norm of trust currently in use within the state, is the subject of the research. The question is addressed through a process of dialogic action research with users and frontline staff of two public services (a housing benefit service and a primary health care general practice). The output of the study is a relational diagnostic, applicable across the public sector, derived from a synthesis of the tests applied by the citizen as they assess the trustworthiness of a public service.
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