Determinants Of Political Trust Research Articles

A Comparative Study on Political Trust in Transition Countries

This paper investigates the origin of political trust in post-communist Central European and Soviet Union countries. By comparing two competing theories that explain political trust, institutionalism, and socialization theory, the paper tried to explore which theory shows a higher explanatory power in the transitional context. The research employs ordinary least squares (OLS) methodology, using country and time as dummies to control for unobserved heterogeneity. The main independent variable is constructed based on the ‘cohort effect,’ representing years of experience of communist rule. The study explores the role of socialization, institutionalism, and labor market experiences as determinants of political trust. Findings indicate that socialization under communism resisted democracy and market economy adoption, but economic and political situations played a more significant role in shaping political trust. Additionally, being employed in the state sector or self-employed during the transition period positively influenced political trust levels. This research sheds light on the intricate factors influencing political trust in the aftermath of significant institutional transformations in post-communist countries.

Moving beyond the political trust crisis debate: Residual analyses to understand trends in political trust

AbstractFor decades, political scientists have hotly debated longitudinal trends in political trust rates. An important undercurrent in the debate is that any decline in political trust might signal a legitimacy crisis. Yet, descriptive figures are unable to distinguish between two interpretations of these downward trends: (i) declines that can reasonably be expected as a reflection of declining political trustworthiness (i.e., procedural or output performance) and thereby reflect critical citizens who monitor their democratic institutions; and (ii) downward trends that are not warranted by democratic performance and thereby suggest a more fundamental disconnect between citizens and their democratic institutions.This research note argues that residuals to multilevel models of political trust allow us to distinguish between these two types, and thereby provide a better understanding of trends in political trust. These residuals do not only reveal short‐term aberrations to the explanatory model (often reflecting short‐lived, country‐specific events), but also the extent to which a country's trust rate systematically underperforms in the middle‐ to long‐term. To the extent that declining trust rates are lower than explanatory models predict, the residuals express excessive distrust. To the extent that declining trust rates are in line with the explanatory models, the residuals reflect critical, monitoring citizenship.We outline the approach of residual analyses as a tool to better understand trends in political trust. We illustrate the use of these residual analyses on a cross‐national, longitudinal data set (the Eurobarometer), covering 15 Western and Southern European countries between 1999 and 2019. While political trust rates fluctuate in all these countries, we only find evidence for a structural decline in two of these countries. In France and Spain political trust failed to recover in line with improving economic and institutional performance after the Great Recession. We then test the versatility of the tool to different conditions, including retests on an alternative set of countries (11 Central and Eastern European countries between 2004 and 2019) and an alternative dataset with different measures and time points (the European Social Survey).Finally, we elaborate on the two main conditions under which residual analyses offer a useful tool to the trend debate in political trust research: (1) a firm understanding of the object‐driven determinants of political trust, and (2) a detailed coverage of country‐wave combinations to separate structural trends from short‐term fluctuations.

Wrapped in a veil: how social media and risk perception shape political trust in emergency organizations in Anhui, China

ABSTRACT While there is a large literature on the determinants of political trust in government organizations, little attention has been paid to the emergency organizations, neither has explored the role of social media and risk perception in shaping political trust in emergency organizations. This article investigates how social media and risk perception shape political trust in emergency organizations. Using data from a questionnaire survey after the severe flooding disaster in Anhui, China, in July 2020 (N = 745), it found that people with disaster awareness and upholding reliability for official media have more trust in emergency organizations. Besides, official media could be an important mediator, through which it significantly increases the strength of the causal relationship between disaster awareness and political trust in emergency organizations. These findings have broad implications on emergency management, functions of social media are attainable within the political trust of emergency organizations and could sustain a positive outlook in risk governance.

Determinants of Political Trust during the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Putting Policy Performance into Evidence.

Basing on the previous and early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article analysis the main determinants of citizens' trust in the prime minister over that period. Prior research on the political effects of the pandemic has mostly focused on identifying a rally around the flag effect, and little is known about other reasons behind the increase in trust after the outbreak of the pandemic. Based on survey data from February to July 2020 for Spanish citizens, we argue that the reasons for the increased trust in the prime minister following the pandemic outbreak are due more to performance evaluations than to emotional-related factors regarding COVID-19 health issues. We also argue that among performance evaluations, the assessment of policy performance in fighting the COVID-19 crisis is of preeminent relevance in explaining trust in the prime minister during the pandemic period. Findings widely support our argument. By comparing the effects of conventional to emotional-related factors, we extend scholarship on political trust in the context of an exogenous crisis.

The Economy and Governance as Determinants of Political Trust in Europe: An Analysis of the European Values Study and World Values Survey, 1990-2019

Trust in state institutions is essential for the stability and legitimacy of political regimes. Understood in evaluative terms, political trust has often been linked to the performance of the state and its institutions. The macro-level sources of trust, however, are not well understood owing to the scarcity of empirical tests beyond cross-sectional analyses. This paper examines economic performance and the quality of governance as determinants of political trust in Europe. The analysis relies on data from the European Values Study and the World Values Survey between 1990 and 2019, covering 42 European countries surveyed at least twice. The modelling strategy explicitly distinguishes between-country variation from within-country variation in macro-level characteristics, enabling the examination of cross-national and longitudinal effects. The results provide evidence of associations between economic performance - economic development and unemployment - and political trust in the expected directions, with some differences across European regions. Further, countries with less corruption tend to enjoy higher political trust, but the effects of changes in the level of corruption on trust depend on the corruption indicator used. Finally, improvements in the quality of electoral democracy are associated with declines in political trust.

Europe in Crisis: Political trust, Corruption and Austerity

Over the past decade, European citizens' confidence in different political institutions has declined sharply. This paper explores the different determinants of political trust in EU28 countries and the role perceived corruption and austerity hold in this decline. At first, the paper reviews the literature on what affects trust decisions and the role of institutions in them. Subsequently, using data from the Eurobarometer (2005-2018) the paper identifies different determinants of political trust. Using hierarchical modelling, the paper combines micro and macro characteristics to identify the importance of perceived corruption and austerity measures in this process. Results suggest that corruption is a significant determinant of trust in national governments, particularly in countries where austerity was present.

Economic and other determinants of political trust


 
 
 
 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.
 
 
 

Economic and Other Determinants of Political Trust

<div><p>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.<strong><em> </em></strong></p></div>

Determinants of political trust: A lifetime learning model.

This article addresses questions regarding the origins of individual variations in political trust. Using 2 prospective longitudinal studies, we examine the associations between family background, general cognitive ability (g) and school motivation at early age, educational and occupational attainment in adulthood, and political trust measured in early and mid-adulthood in 2 large representative samples of the British population born in 1958 (N = 8,804) and in 1970 (N = 7,194). A lifetime learning model of political trust is tested using structural equation modeling to map the pathways linking early experiences to adult outcomes. Results show that political trust is shaped by both early and later experiences with institutions in society. Individuals who have accumulated more socioeconomic, educational, and motivational resources throughout their life course express higher levels of political trust than do those with fewer resources.