Digital government increasingly depends upon the collection, storage and use of personal information. Citizens routinely disclose personal and sensitive data to access essential services such as healthcare, education, taxation, identity management, and income support. Existing theories of trust largely explain relationships based on voluntary confidence and discretionary reliance. They offer less guidance for understanding citizen–state relationships in which participation is effectively compulsory because access to essential public services depends upon the disclosure of personal information.
This paper introduces Compelled Trust Theory, an emerging conceptual framework that explains the obligations arising when individuals are required to rely on government institutions regardless of their level of confidence in those institutions. The paper argues that compelled disclosure creates a condition of compelled trust in which citizens must entrust personal information to the state to participate in contemporary social and administrative life.
Drawing on scholarship in trust, public value, stewardship and digital governance, the paper proposes that compelled trust generates stewardship obligations extending beyond legal compliance. These obligations include responsibilities for protection, governance, accountability, transparency, and the responsible management of citizen data throughout its lifecycle.
The paper contributes to debates in public administration and political science by reframing the citizen–state relationship as one shaped not solely by voluntary trust but by the governance obligations that arise when trust becomes unavoidable. In doing so, it shifts analytical attention from whether citizens trust government to the stewardship responsibilities governments assume when citizens have little practical alternative but to disclose their personal information.
