Liberal democracy across the West is under strain. The causes of these democratic challenges are many and complex, but there is a common thread - a decline in political trust. This report outlines four major areas of challenge for policy-makers to focus on to improve political trust.

Public trust as a political resource is particularly important in times of coronavirus. This report presents findings from a survey of a representative sample of 1059 Australians aged between 18 and 75 years. The survey was conducted between May and June 2020 in Australia, Italy, the UK and the USA, to allow for comparison.

This report compares Australia’s democracy with other nations over four issues: trust, concern about corruption, strength of democratic standards and the depth of liberal values.