Summary:

This article describes and explains perceptions of how able government bodies are to prevent and handle crises based on surveys of Norwegian citizens and civil servants. The citizens generally have a rather high level of trust in the government’s ability to handle and prevent crises, and there are no big differences between the general public and the civil servants regarding their perception of crisis management. Trust-related factors are the main explanatory variables among the citizens, whereas the variations in the views of the bureaucrats are related to policy area, perceived coordinative capability, and mutual trust between governmental bodies.