Citizen Evaluations of Federalism and the Importance of Trust in the Federation Government for Opinions on Regional Equity and Subordination in Four Countries

Abstract

Regional equity and subordination are paramount issues in federal systems. Based on surveys of public attitudes in Canada, Germany, Spain, and the United States, we compare public perceptions of the performance of federalism with respect to system characteristics and people’s feelings about regional equity and subordination. We also examine institutional, social, and demographic factors plausibly related to those perceptions. These factors are found to be weakly or not at all associated with citizen evaluations and perceptions of regional equity and subordination. Instead, in all countries, public trust in the various orders of government, especially the federation government, is most associated with perceptions of regional equity and regional subordination. However, the nature of the interactive effect of these trust measures differs significantly in terms of impacts on the evaluative dimensions.