Economic and other determinants of political trust

William R Dipietro

doi:10.20525/ijrbs.v2i1.58

Abstract

    Political trust is important for the effective functioning of government. This paper uses cross country regression analysis to see whether three different measures of economic performance matter for political trust. The results lend support to the hypothesis that political trust is influenced by economic growth, the standard of living, and the appropriate use of government spending. In addition, the paper considers two institutional variables, perceived independence of the judiciary and the degree of democracy to assess their effect on political trust. It finds that perceived judicial independence has a positive effect on political trust, but democracy has a negative effect.   

Highlights

Political trust, trust in politicians and the political system, is the foundation for a stable political system, and a stable political system is a key precondition that provides the essential environment for a healthy economy
While many people have found that perceived overall economic performance matters for political trust, this paper, hopefully, gives greater insight into the role of economic performance on political trust by considering three different dimensions of actual economic performance on political trust, the standard of living, economic growth, and government spending waste
The second equation is the regression of the degree of trust in politicians on the standard of living (GDPPC) and on economic growth (GROWTH)

Summary

Introduction

Trust in politicians and the political system, is the foundation for a stable political system, and a stable political system is a key precondition that provides the essential environment for a healthy economy. An adequate (sufficient) level of political trust is needed to maintain the legitimacy of a political system and to perpetuate its continual existence. Insufficient levels of political trust can lead to discontent. The study is unique in that it investigates a large cross section of countries without using World Value Survey data. The paper is divided into five sections. The first section reviews a few of the relevant articles in the literature. The second section presents a simple political trust model, and discusses the variables that will be considered in the empirical section. The third section documents the sources of the variables. The fourth section presents the empirical results, and the fifth and final section concludes. DiPietro/ International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science Vol 2, No 1, 2013 ISSN: 2147-4478

Brief Overview of Some of the Literature

Sources for the Variables

Empirical Findings

C GDPPC GROWTH

Conclusion