A new statewide survey of local government leaders across Michigan shows a paradox: officials say local democracy is functioning well, even while their trust in residents has fallen to its lowest recorded level.
According to the spring 2025 wave of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), only 40 percent of local officials say they trust residents "nearly always" or "most of the time," down sharply from 53 percent in 2012 and a high of 65 percent in 2020. Meanwhile, 21 percent of officials say they "seldom" or "almost never" trust residents to participate responsibly — the highest such figure in the U of M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's Michigan Public Policy Survey