Stable or variable distrust? Disentangling the relationship between political trust and electoral behavior

Social capital, political trust and experience of cannabis smoking: A population-based study in southern Sweden

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the association between political party preference and trust in knowledge-based institutions, while also considering how political trust facilitates the association. The authors focus on the opinions of supporters of the six largest parliamentary political parties in Finland.Design/methodology/approachThe data are based on a population level survey. First, the authors compared party supporters’ trust in universities and YLE media. Second, the authors analyzed how political trust contributes to party supporters’ trust in knowledge-based institutions by estimating predicted probabilities. Third, the authors derived the partial correlations from the non-linear probability models incorporated separately between trust in YLE, Universities and political trust, and compared the correlations across the parties. Finally, the authors conducted the logit models from which the authors post-estimated the predicted probabilities of having high trust in YLE and Universities according to the levels of political trust separately for each party.FindingsThe results showed a cumulation of trust, reflecting especially on the attitudes of the populist party supporters who tended to have lower trust in knowledge-based institutions and distrust was highly associated with low political trust. This cumulation of trust shows an interesting dynamic in how closely institutions are linked together in terms of attitudes on their legitimacy.Originality/valueThis study assesses the cumulation of distrust, while providing an alternative political spectrum to the US two party system that has been the major focus of past research. Furthermore, the study fills a gap in the research by being the first to assess the intersection of the trust dimensions.

Social capital, political trust and self-reported psychological health: A population-based study

Political trust is often considered as legitimacy enhancing, but whether political trust is well-being enhancing is still underexplored. Using micro data from the East Asian Social Survey 2012, this study investigates the association between province-level/aggregate political trust and individual happiness in China, and explores the role of economic development in influencing individual political trust after the period of rapid growth in 1990–2010. Results show a positive and significant contextual effect of political trust on individual happiness in China, with the endogeneity problem addressed by an instrument variables method. Currently in China, it is a higher provincial rate of GDP growth rather than GDP per capita that predicts a higher level of political trust. Economic growth still significantly reinforces the level of individual political trust and even helps to raise individual political trust among economically disadvantaged populations. The “critical citizens” phenomenon has not yet grown into a nationwide trend. Since the positive contextual effect of political trust on individual subjective well-being, policy makers are encouraged to maintain the stock of political trust through good governance.

Introduction. A high level of political trust is an important element of stable and effective public administration. At the present stage, the topic of the study of political trust in Russia has gained additional relevance due to the significant changes taking place in all public spheres in connection with the growth of international tensions. The aim of this study is to determine the levels of trust of young people in the Kaliningrad Oblast towards domestic political actors representing the Russian authorities.Methodology and sources. The research is based on the works of Russian researchers devoted to the study of the peculiarities of political trust of Russian residents. On the basis of that there were put forward the hypotheses. The empirical base of the research was the data obtained in the course of a mass survey of young people in the Kaliningrad Oblast (n = 397). The indices of trust in the authorities and political leaders were calculated on their basis.Results and discussion. The results of the sociological research conducted by the method of online questionnaire are presented. Significant differences in assessments of trust of young people in the Kaliningrad region have been revealed and its levels in relation to the authorities and political leaders have been determined. The highest level of trust is recorded in relation to the Governor of the Kaliningrad Oblast, the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and the President of the Russian Federation. The average level of trust is demonstrated by young people in relation to state security bodies, the governments of the Russian Federation and the Kaliningrad region, the court and the regional parliament. The State Duma, the Council of Federation, the head of the Kaliningrad administration and the head of the City of Kaliningrad have a low level of trust.Conclusion. It has been revealed that the political trust of young people in the Kaliningrad region is characterised by the features, which are typical for the Russian population as a whole, such as a high level of trust in the head of state, low trust in parliament and personalisation of trust. Among the specific features of the political trust of young people in the region we can single out a high degree of trust in the governor, as well as the absence of significant differences in trust in the authorities of the federal and regional levels.

The arguable claims of levels of trust in politics and business situations motivated this study, which investigates the degree of trust within micro, small, and medium categories of Hungarian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies. Different sizes of companies have varying interactions between internal members and their business partners. This study concentrated on exploring Hungarian ICT companies due to their significant role in supporting Industry 4.0. The study population are active Hungarian ICT companies. This research implemented random cluster selection related to the location of ICT firms. It exploited 100 samples, including micro, small, and medium-sized companies, and implemented discriminant analysis to examine the description and hypotheses. First, this study found that the level of trust in institutions within micro, small, and medium-sized companies varies significantly. The level of trust in institutions proliferates within corporations due to the capability of the formal institution to provide fair public services. This research additionally underlined that the performance of the Hungarian government would improve trust amongst the companies. Second, this study concluded that the level of interpersonal trust within three categories of companies was similar. A high level of interpersonal trust would expand internal engagement among the members of companies. Finally, the level of trust in business partners varied significantly within the distinct sizes of Hungarian ICT companies. A high level of trust in corporate associates improves business collaboration, reduces uncertainty, and supports long-term business connections. Levels of institutional trust and inter-organizational trust differed amongst different categories of companies. However, the level of interpersonal trust remained similar within companies of the various sizes.

BackgroundTrust is regarded as a necessary component for the smooth running of society, although societal and political modernising processes have been linked to an increase in mistrust, potentially signalling social and economic problems. Fukuyama developed the notion of ‘high trust’ and ‘low trust’ societies, as a way of understanding trust within different societies. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test and extend Fukuyama’s theory utilising data on interpersonal trust in Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Thailand. This paper focuses on trust in family, neighbours, strangers, foreigners and people with a different religion.MethodsCross-sectional surveys were undertaken in 2009–10, with an overall sample of 6331. Analyses of differences in overall levels of trust between countries were undertaken using Chi square analyses. Multivariate binomial logistic regression analysis was undertaken to identify socio-demographic predictors of trust in each country.ResultsOur data indicate a tripartite trust model: ‘high trust’ in Australia and Hong Kong; ‘medium trust’ in Japan and Taiwan; and ‘low trust’ in South Korea and Thailand. Trust in family and neighbours were very high across all countries, although trust in people with a different religion, trust in strangers and trust in foreigners varied considerably between countries. The regression models found a consistent group of subpopulations with low trust across the countries: people on low incomes, younger people and people with poor self-rated health. The results were conflicting for gender: females had lower trust in Thailand and Hong Kong, although in Australia, males had lower trust in strangers, whereas females had lower trust in foreigners.ConclusionThis paper identifies high, medium and low trust societies, in addition to high and low trusting population subgroups. Our analyses extend the seminal work of Fukuyama, providing both corroboration and refutation for his theory.

ABSTRACTMuch of the educational gradient in trust in politicians remains unexplained by prevailing theories on material resources and institutional knowledge. Our novel explanation theorizes that: in its relationship with trust in politicians, education is a status indicator; and the lower trust in politicians among the less educated reflects the latter’s opposition to the former’s status signaling. Analyses of representative Dutch survey data (n = 1,296) demonstrate that indicators of affinity with elite culture do indeed largely underlie the association between the level of education and trust in politicians. We discuss the relevance of our findings for debates on “culture wars.”

ABSTRACTDemocratic consolidation relies on a degree of political trust and support for new democratic institutions and actors. A decline in political trust threatens the legitimacy of institutions, and democracy itself. Using Ipsos Khayabus 2014 national public opinion survey data, the paper explores levels of political trust in South Africa's transitional society in late 2014. It asks whether there is a sufficient mass of ‘critical citizens’ to ensure accountable government, and trust expressed towards key objects in the political system. We find that a majority of South Africans are critical citizens, offering conditional support based on performance evaluations. However, we also find little distinction in the minds of citizens between political institutions and the actors that inhabit them. Low levels of trust in political actors tend to erode trust in institutions. In turn, political trust in democratic institutions is also linked to evaluations of the ruling party; signalling the dangers of a prolonged stay in power by a dominant party. Finally, we conclude with possible implications for democratic consolidation by arguing that if despondence with current actors and institutions increases citizens may become less satisfied with democracy and less inclined to embrace the dream of a democratic, unified nation.

Building on a conceptual distinction between trust in commitment and trust in competence, this study develops a fourfold typology of political trust. It then assigns respondents from a World Values Survey module conducted in 13 nondemocracies to those trust types using a clustering process guided by their corresponding ideal types. The results show that respondents reporting the same level of trust in government can belong to different trust types. Moreover, respondents from two trust types are particularly likely to engage in activism: one includes commitment trusters, who have high trust in government commitment but low trust in its competence, and the other includes those with low trust in both dimensions. This study effectively categorises respondents into conceptually derived trust types, reveals the effects of political trust on political participation in nondemocracies, and illustrates the value of constrained clustering for measuring multidimensional constructs based on a priori theoretical conceptualisation.

This study investigates the association between regime type, political trust, and subjective well-being (SWB) in 78 countries. Differently from previous works, democracy was conceptualized in terms of a multidimensional model (i.e., regime type), rather than a bipolar continuum ranging from authoritarian regimes to full democracies. The first question was raised as to whether regime characteristics would be nonlinearly related to SWB. A second question was examined as to whether political trust could moderate the relationship between regime type and well-being, such that under conditions of high or low trust in the government the differences in well-being across the type of regimes would be reduced. Data from the European Values Study as well as from the World Value Survey were used. Moreover, regime types were defined according to the Varieties of Democracy as well as the Economist Intelligence Unit. Multilevel analyses revealed that life satisfaction scores were lower for electoral autocracy compared to closed autocracy and liberal democracy. Moreover, happiness scores were significantly higher for full democracies compared to authoritarian regimes and flawed democracies. Finally, political trust moderated the association between regime type and SWB. Specifically, at higher or lower levels of political trust, the relationship between regime type and well-being tended to decrease. Overall, the findings support the conclusion that the relationship between democracy and subjective well‐being is nonlinear, and that the role of political trust is as important as the role of democracy.

This article aims to understand the correlates of political trust by delving into the multiple interactive effects of education in democratic states throughout the world. It asks whether education raises political trust by increasing the stakes of the citizens in the system and whether education diminishes trust as a result of being abler to evaluate the existence of corruption in a given country. It also taps into how post-materialism as an individual-level factor affects this equation by activating critical judgments toward political institutions. The findings show that, indeed, the effect of education on political trust is very context-dependent. Political trust and education are positively correlated in more meritocratic countries and negatively correlated in the more corrupt ones. Post-material values, combined with educational attainment, tend to lower political trust to a certain extent yet this effect is surpassed by the presence or absence of meritocracy or political corruption. We also find that the effect of education on political trust becomes more pronounced as the level of education increases, with university graduates being the most susceptible to the effects of meritocracy and corruption on their trust levels.

To investigate the association between political trust in the Riksdag and lack of belief in the possibility to influence one's own health (external locus of control), taking horizontal trust into account. The 2008 public health survey in Skåne is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study with a 55% participation rate. A random sample of 28,198 persons aged 18-80 years participated. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the associations between political trust in the Riksdag (an aspect of vertical trust) and lack of belief in the possibility to influence one's own health (external locus of control). The multiple regression analyses included age, country of birth, education, and horizontal trust in other people. A 33.7% of all men and 31.8% of all women lack internal locus of control. Low (external) health locus of control is more common in higher age groups, among people born outside Sweden, with lower education, low horizontal trust, low political trust, and no opinion concerning political trust. Respondents with not particularly strong political trust, no political trust at all and no opinion have significantly higher odds ratios of external locus of control throughout the multiple regression analyses. Low political trust in the Riksdag seems to be independently associated with external health locus of control.

Why do some citizens trust in local political actors and institutions while others do not? With data from the Norwegian Local Election Survey 2019, we examine characteristics of citizens with high and low local political trust. The analyses indicate that trust in the different political actors and institutions is closely linked. For example, those who report high trust in the mayor also report high trust in politicians in general, in the municipal council, and in the municipal administration. In other words, people tend to have either high or low trust in the entire local political system. Furthermore, we find that trust in local political systems and actors is associated with a number of individual and contextual factors including the sense of belonging to the municipality, the use of municipal services, and political participation. Trust also seems to be linked to being on the winning team: those who voted for parties that won the election are more trustful than those who voted for parties that that did not win the election.

Scholars have repeatedly expressed concern about the consequences low levels of political trust might have for the stability of democratic political systems. Empirical support and the identification of causal mechanisms for this concern, however, are often lacking. In this article, the relation between political trust and law‐abiding attitudes is investigated. It is expected that citizens with low levels of trust in the institutions of the political system will find it more acceptable to break the law. As a result, low levels of political trust might undermine the effectiveness and legitimacy of government action and its ability to implement legislation. Based on survey data from 33 European countries using the 1999–2001 European Values Study (N = 41,125), the relation between political trust and legal permissiveness is examined using a multilevel ordered logistic regression analysis. The results show that respondents with low levels of political trust are significantly more likely to accept illegal behaviour such as tax fraud than respondents with high levels of political trust. Since it is known from earlier research that actors who are permissive towards law‐breaking behaviour are more likely to commit these acts themselves, the hypothesis that low levels of political trust will be associated with less law compliance within a society is supported.