Institutional Support, Perceptions of Elite Motivation, and Representation

Abstract

A great deal of research has documented and sought to explain American's discontent toward politics. Although most of this research is dedicated to understanding the determinants of the National Election Study's (NES) Trust in Government index, relatively less is known about the willingness of citizens to support institutional changes to their status quo political system. This research relies on social psychological theories of procedural justice to understand how perceptions of the distributive and procedural aspects of government shape both support for institutional changes in the broader U.S. political system and shorter-term trust in government evaluations. Analysis of a unique set of open-ended responses to the National Election Survey demonstrates that support for institutional and system level changes is mostly a function of economic perceptions and the belief that politicians are unresponsive to the public rather than any short-term dissatisfaction with policy outcomes. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates that although the desire for institutional changes in the political system and trust in government are shaped by similar perceptions toward the economy and representation, there remains some distinct variation in the desire for system level changes and trust in government.