Political Trust Research Articles

“It’s All Closer and More Personal to Me”: The Meaning of Closeness for Migration-Related Civic Engagement of Czech Adolescents

The lack of trust in politics and poor civic engagement challenge both new and established democracies. To tackle this challenge, it is necessary to understand what motivates new generations of citizens to become civically engaged. We contribute to discussions about this issue by offering a qualitative, in-depth exploration of adolescents’ motivations for civic engagement, focusing specifically on the issue of migration. Drawing on data from four critical focus groups conducted with adolescents (17–19 years old) in Czechia, we ask how their perspectives on migration translate into motivation for migration-related civic engagement. Utilizing the theoretical perspective and interpretative approach of cultural sociology, we look for the meanings that sustain their personal motivation to become engaged. We find that feelings of closeness to the issue of migration act as an essential driver of adolescents’ personal motivation for engagement, making migration an issue of concern to them. We further distinguish between cultural closeness and closeness of contact and identify distinct mechanisms through which these forms of closeness translate into adolescents’ concerns about the issue of migration. Based on our findings, we call for greater consideration of the role of culture and local context in the research on adolescents’ motivations for civic engagement.

Race, Inequality, and Political Trust in Latin America

Abstract During the last decades, political distrust has seemingly become a common trend across Latin American democracies, however, differences in the levels of confidence among groups have also been identified. This article considers the potential effects of ethno-racial structures and their interactions with other forms of socioeconomic inequalities on political trust. Building on data from four waves of the Latinobarometer project and contextual measures from different sources, we analyze these relations and find that both socioeconomic and ethno-racial inequalities affect political trust and impact on the formation of different relations with the political system across Latin America. Furthermore, in particular it is found that at the individual-level interactions between inequalities shape political trust differently depending on the particular ethno-racial identification. These findings contribute to the understanding of ethnicity and race and its associations with other structural inequalities in shaping mass political culture.

A matter of trust? Analyzing the relationship between attitudes toward COVID‐19 countermeasures and right‐wing ideology in Germany

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic has divided societies, especially regarding vaccine mandates. While research suggests that political ideology plays a crucial role in whether people support or oppose COVID‐19 countermeasures, the relationship between these attitudes and political ideology remains unclear, with varying results across different countries. The present research focuses on right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) in Germany, examining its role as a predictor. Prior studies highlight that, conservatives and right‐wing authoritarians, particularly in the USA, tend to hold more negative attitudes toward COVID‐19 countermeasures despite RWA's usual association with unwavering support for state authorities. Therefore, the present survey study (N = 1063) investigated whether trust in politics and science moderates this relationship. Contrary to expectations, the findings revealed that RWA consistently predicted support for vaccine mandates independent of trust levels. Results are discussed about the specifics of the German case and more general relationships between political ideology and the support of state authorities.

Moving beyond us-versus-them polarization towards constructive conversations

ABSTRACT The global surge of political polarization poses a significant threat to liberal democracies. The prevailing “us-versus-them” mentality prevents leaders from effectively addressing societal issues. While intergroup dialogue shows promise in bridging divisions among diverse identity groups, the dynamics of real-life conversations between individuals with opposing political identities remain underexplored. This study investigates a unique case study of constructive face-to-face interactions among American political elites on a contentious issue. By examining how opposing leaders collaborate towards shared goals, the research identifies communicative actions that can reduce polarization. This study delves into the complex dynamics of polarization, as both an issue-based and identity-based conflict, focusing on interactional framing strategies leaders use to navigate their differences. The findings reveal that political leaders bridge ideological divides by embracing multiple frames, reconnecting conflicting frames, and developing neutral non-political frames. They also foster positive relations, use superordinate identities, and decrease social distance, thereby bridging their identity gap. By fostering convergence rather than accentuating differences, they effectively counteract polarization. Studying rare examples of constructive bipartisan collaboration offers valuable insights into reducing polarization, restoring political trust among the general public, and mitigating broader societal impacts, ultimately strengthening the foundations of a healthy democracy.

Does land expropriation to neighbors affect the enrollment of bystanders in pension programs?

Land expropriation can incur not only economic costs but also political costs. Using panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we investigate the impact of land expropriation on the compliance behaviors of rural residents for the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS), which is an extremely important public policy led by the government in China. To exclude the potential confounding impacts of reduced social security levels resulting from land expropriation, we focus on farmers in the same village who have not suffered land expropriation. The results of the difference-in-differences (DID) regression model suggest that land expropriation significantly reduces the probability of farmers within the same village, who have not suffered land expropriation, enrolling in the NRPS. The primary reasons are that land expropriation significantly decreases the trust of non-land expropriated farmers in local officials and the NRPS. Additionally, land expropriation has a stronger impact on unexpropriated farmers with lower levels of education, as well as unexpropriated households without Communist Party of China membership or with a high level of dependence on agriculture. Our findings suggest the cost of land expropriation is larger than previously thought, as it generates broader political trust and policy compliance issues.

Religious coping with contingency as a resource for democracy?

AbstractThis quantitative study empirically examines the mediating factors between Christian religiosity, political trust, and populist attitudes. As a novel approach, we ask whether religious coping with contingency reduces anxiety among religious citizens. Given that anxiety can reduce institutional trust and increase the appeal of populism, religiously reduced anxiety could support democratic attitudes. In addition, generalized social trust and acceptance of immigration are tested as further mediators between Christian religiosity and its political outcomes. Based on a recent representative sample of the German population (6th Membership Survey of the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches in Germany), regression analyses find limited evidence for the coping thesis. Overall, religious coping, generalized social trust, and acceptance of immigration together explain to a large extent the higher prevalence of political trust and the lower prevalence of populist attitudes among liberal Christians in Germany.

The impacts of new propaganda media use on youth's political socialization

ABSTRACT Given the critical role of media in political socialization, the relationship between media use and political trust has attracted considerable attention from Western scholars. To examine the media mobilization effect in contemporary China, this paper aims to investigate how the use of New Propaganda Media (NPM) by youth relates to their patriotism and political trust based on a cross-sectional study conducted by cluster random sampling among Chinese youth in 31 provinces (N = 3011). Results indicated that (1) NPM use, in generally, positively predicts patriotism and political trust; (2) the intensity of patriotism mediates the connection between NPM use and political trust; and (3) usage of official media, social media and learning media has a positive impact on political trust, while the effect of entertainment media use is not significant. Our findings contributed to a better understanding of the effect of NPM on political trust and provide theoretical and practical significance in media mobilization and youth's political socialization of future research.

Political trust and public support for climate policy in Europe: the role of perceptions about politicians’ competence and integrity

While previous studies on the relationship between political trust and support for climate policy have focused on the evaluative component of trust, namely whether politicians and the political system can be trusted or not, less is known about the role of different dimensions of trustworthiness that underlie such evaluations. In this study, we examine how perceptions about politicians’ competence and integrity, two central dimensions of trustworthiness, are related to public support for climate policies. Using survey data from four European countries (Sweden, Germany, Spain, and Poland), we find that people who think that politicians are competent are generally more likely to support climate policy. In contrast, we do not find such a relationship between integrity perceptions (e.g., corruption) and policy attitudes. These findings are consistent across national contexts and hold even when alternating the measures capturing competence and integrity perceptions. To bolster public support for climate policies, climate communication should prioritize addressing public concerns regarding politicians’ competence in designing sound climate policies, rather than alleviating concerns about their integrity, such as fears of corruption.

Investigating Consumer’s Attitudes Toward New Carbon Tax Regulation in Indonesia

Abstract The Indonesian Government’s 2021 initiative to curb carbon emissions through carbon tax aims to influence the behavior of firms and consumers, particularly, those reliant on fossil fuels. Simultaneously, the carbon tax is envisaged as a means of generating state income and facilitating environmental investments. This research investigates Indonesian consumers’ attitudes toward the carbon tax through a representative survey, analyzing awareness, acceptance, and support levels as indicators and utilizing Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with Partial Least Squares (PLS) program. The study explores opinions on the climate crisis and carbon tax, with a focus on Greater Jakarta. Preconceptions of climate change and their influence on attitudes are examined, along with socio-demographic characteristics shaping consumer behaviours. Findings reveal a heightened climate crisis awareness among the participants, however, a quarter remain unaware of the carbon tax enactment. Most consumers accept the tax, recognizing personal and industry responsibility for carbon reduction. Many are willing to contribute with tax rates of 1% to 3%. Policy recommendations include fostering political trust, progressive taxation on fossil fuels, and government incentives for carbon reduction. The study underscores the link between awareness, acceptance, and support for carbon tax implementation, suggesting further research on additional support indicators, including political trust.

Violent conflict and the demand for healthcare: How armed conflict reduces trust, instills fear, and increases child mortality

What are the health effects of violent conflict? It is well known that wars kill civilians away from the battlefield and long after the fighting has stopped. Yet why this happens remains only partially understood. While we have good evidence that factors such as the destruction of infrastructure, political neglect, and the out-migration of health workers – what may be called supply-side factors – negatively affect health outcomes, we know much less about how violence shapes the attitudes and behavior towards healthcare use among civilians exposed to violent conflict – what may be called demand-side factors. Here, I theorize that exposure to violence suppresses civilian demand for healthcare through two mediating channels – mistrust of government institutions and fear of future violence – with adverse consequences for health outcomes, particularly child health. To test this theory empirically, I combine information from over 80,000 interviews conducted in 22 conflict-affected countries in Africa with individual- and context-level measures of exposure to violent conflict. Exposure to violence is associated with significantly lower levels of political trust and increased fear of future violence, which in turn predict lower healthcare utilization, lower immunization rates, and higher infant and child mortality. To fully address the health consequences of armed conflict, it is essential that we better understand the attitudinal and behavioral correlates of exposure to violence.

AIGC Changes the Internal Governance of Political Trust Under the Perspective of Political Communication——A Theoretical Research and Practice Analysis Based on a National Network Survey

Political communication is one of the important ways to influence political trust. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence generated content (AIGC) technology, its application is increasingly extensive in the field of political communication, which has had a profound impact on the traditional political communication mode. This study discusses the difference between AIGC (generative ARTIFICIAL intelligence) and traditional political communication in information credibility and its impact on public political trust, and in order to further enhance the political communication of AIGC, a new pattern of AI precision governance should be constructed with grid theory. Through online extensive sampling of the national 503 people, overall, the application of AIGC technology significantly changed the way of political information and trust degree, compared with the traditional form of public political trust fell, at the same time the traditional (authoritative) media, social media main body using AIGC political communication will also affect the people's political trust. In this regard, accurate precision governance should be realized, so that the application of AIGC in political communication has the following trends: it can improve the public's awareness of the credibility and authenticity of political information to a certain extent, and then further enhance the public's political trust. This study from the perspective of political communication reveals the application of AIGC for the influence of public political trust path, reveals the information credibility and authenticity perception in the important role of cultivating political trust, further highlights the change and innovation of traditional communication form, reasonable guide the development of good AIGC political communication new areas, promote the importance of building a new pattern of AI accurate governance, provides an important reference for the future development in the field of political communication.

Is there a rural-urban political divide in Britain?

ABSTRACT A rural-urban political divide, characterized by rural mistrust in politics, dissatisfaction with democracy, and support for authoritarian-populist leaders and parties, has been identified in many Western democracies. Yet there has been little investigation of the extent to which British public opinion is divided in this fashion. Using British Election Study data from 2016 and 2019 that combines large samples with finely-grained geographic identifiers, this paper investigates the possible presence and extent of a rural-urban divide in British political attitudes and values. We find that while rural Britons are more conservative on economic issues, and more supportive of the Conservative party than urbanites, the two groups have comparable levels of democratic satisfaction, political trust, and authoritarianism. As such, unlike in other Western democracies, we do not find any evidence that rural Britons are more resentful, dissatisfied, or “left-behind” compared to their urban counterparts.

Someone Like Me? Disability Identity and Representation Perceptions

AbstractStudies have shown that citizens from minoritized groups, including women and people of color, tend to feel better represented by politicians who share their identity, often translating into electoral support. Is this also the case for disabled people, one of the largest yet often ignored minority groups in our societies? Analyses of data from a conjoint survey experiment with 6,000 respondents in the UK and US show that disabled people indeed feel better represented by disabled candidates. This representational link does not require a sense of group identity and is only partly explained by perceptions of shared policy preferences. The study also reveals that non-disabled people feel better represented by non-disabled candidates. The findings highlight the relevance of disability as a political identity, bolstering calls for more disabled people in politics, and might help explain the disability gaps in political trust and participation.

Influence and mechanisms of perceived information disclosure in shaping public attitudes towards waste disposal facilities: Evidence from China

Waste disposal facilities are an indispensable infrastructure for modern urban development, and increasing public acceptance of such facilities contributes to sustainable urban development. Estimation results using the least squares method, based on widely representative questionnaire data, indicate that perception of government information disclosure has a significant positive impact on enhancing the public’s willingness to accept waste disposal facilities. This finding is further confirmed not only when using instrumental variables approach to address potential endogeneity as well, but also by a series of robustness tests. The results of the heterogeneity analyses show that the positive impact of government information disclosure is present only in the sub-sample of those who have no religious trust and frequency of online socialization. Further findings support the idea that political trust and the perception of the government capacity to ensure public security are two fundamental mechanisms. In particular, trust in county government and perceptions of medical security are more likely to drive this positive effect. This study reveals the role of perceptions about information disclosure in shaping public attitudes toward public programs and provides new insights into facilitating the successful construction of public facilities.

Carbon dioxide removal through ecosystem restoration: Public perceptions and political participation.

We compare public perceptions of restoring different ecosystems to increase CO2 uptake in Germany, through focus groups and a general population survey. Among focus group participants forests were highly popular, peatlands evoked negative associations, and seagrass was largely unknown. Nevertheless, the restoration of all ecosystems was viewed positively. We contrast these reactions to those of survey respondents who had not received additional information on restoration. They voiced narrower, less diverse opinions centering around afforestation. Further, focus group participants preferred expert-led restoration decisions, citing low trust in politicians' technical competence. Contrary to common policy recommendations, also beyond the German context, participants did not emphasize the need of citizen participation and were not strongly concerned about land use conflicts or compensation of affected user groups. The results imply that the public underestimates the political complexity of negotiation processes in ecosystem governance, which are becoming increasingly relevant in the international policy landscape.

‘The nation does not even know what a jury is’: trust, fear and judicial reconstruction in the French Revolution, 1789–91

Abstract The long and turbulent debates in the French National Constituent Assembly of 1789–91 over the creation of a jury system offer a window into the problematic nature of political trust in the French Revolution. The corruption of French mœurs, and the uncertain and contradictory place of the jury in their regeneration, preoccupied Assembly deputies. While courtroom juries were initially taken for granted as a vital pillar of the new constitution, debate repeatedly disparaged the mental and moral capacity of the French to actually weigh evidence and deliver fair verdicts, in the face of potentially intimidatory criminals and a ‘public opinion’ depicted in increasingly untrustworthy terms. The structure eventually erected sought to constrain jurors’ decision-making to an ‘infallible’ emotive response to sensory stimuli, and to ban them from rationally reviewing written evidence. This reflected deeper problems with revolutionary elites’ willingness to grant autonomy and legitimacy to the wider population: to trust the people.

How is political trust associated with economic and environmental policy prioritization? A longitudinal analysis between 2017 and 2022.

In this article, we examine the longitudinal development of economy-over-environment policy priorities in Finland during a period marked by several significant adverse societal events. In addition, we explore the influence of political trust on these priorities over time. We utilize a five-round panel dataset comprising 2155 observations (N = 431) to examine both within-individual and between-individual variations from late 2017 to early 2023. Our findings reveal a significant increase in the prioritization of the economy in each observation period following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this trend is not observed among individuals with high levels of political trust. The within-individual analysis indicates that high political trust moderates, rather than causes, higher economy-over-environment prioritization. Our study highlights the significance of political trust as a preventing factor against the deprioritization of environmental policies, particularly when societies confront significant and intersecting adverse events.

Landscape of Distrust: Political Trust Across America’s Urban-Rural Divide

Do rural Americans trust the government less than non-rural Americans? In an era of declining trust in government and mounting geographic polarization, this research examines the relationship between geography, identity, and attitudes of political trust in the United States. Using national survey data from the 2016 and 2020 American National Election Studies time series surveys, this quantitative analysis tests hypotheses that rurality in the context of place and place-based identity is associated with lower trust in the federal government. Overall, the results show that both living in and identifying with more rural areas corresponds with decreased government trust, regardless of the political party of the incumbent president. These findings contribute to the understanding of America’s urban-rural political divide and suggest significant implications for both partisan leaders and policymakers.

Perceptions of Social Mobility and Political Trust in China: The Mediating Role of Perceived Fairness

Perceptions of Social Mobility and Political Trust in China: The Mediating Role of Perceived Fairness

When legitimacy becomes the object of politics: the politicization of political support in European democracies

Democratic legitimacy is essential for democratic stability, as democracies rely on citizen support to survive. However, perceived legitimacy gaps can also be an important catalyst for change and potential democratic renewal, begging the question when challenges to legitimacy become problematic for democratic survival. Easton distinguished between citizen support for political authorities and the political system, and argued that if support for political authorities declined, such declining support could either be resolved by the current political authorities changing course, or by citizens electing new political authorities at the next elections. However, if dissatisfaction with political authorities would not be resolved, lacking support had the potential to eventually “spill-over” and undermine support for the political system as a whole. In most empirical research on legitimacy, the assumption is that such “spill-over” is visible only if declining levels of political trust and satisfaction with democracy start to undermine support for democracy as a political system. In this paper, we argue that “spill-over” can also manifest in a different way: through the politicization of political support. When politics is no longer (only) about substantive policy decisions, but rather (increasingly) about the system itself, agreement on the rules of the game, or even on democracy as “the only game in town”, is no longer self-evident. In this paper we further develop our theoretical argument about the connection between legitimacy and politicisation, and argue that European democracies appear to experience growing politicization of political support, in terms of the association of political support with citizens’ substantive issue positions and voting behaviour. The paper demonstrates empirical evidence of such politicization of political support in 17 European democracies with European Social Survey data from 2002–2022. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of the politicization of political support for democratic stability and renewal.