Political Trust Research Articles

Politically Driven Intentional News Avoidance under Democratic Backsliding

While extant research on news avoidance has been conducted mainly in democratic societies, this article examines intentional news avoidance in a society undergoing severe democratic backsliding. Given the decline of political freedom and democratic institutions, citizens in such contexts may become frustrated with ongoing political change and withdraw from public affairs and the news. This could result in a form of intentional, politically driven, and topical news avoidance. At the individual level, such news avoidance is likely to be influenced by political attitudes, ability to adapt, and news affect and cognition. Analysis of survey data from post-National Security Law Hong Kong finds that negative news affect and perceived news efficacy explain intentional avoidance of news about social and political change, whereas political trust, belief in civil liberties, and adaptiveness relate to news avoidance only indirectly through negative news affect and perceived news efficacy. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Local perspectives on marine ecotourism development in a water-insecure island region: the case of Bocas del Toro, Panama

As a dimension of a blue economy, marine ecotourism should, in theory, not only increase economic viability and environmental sustainability but, most importantly, pursue socially equitable outcomes. In tropical and sub-tropical island regions, where substantial tourism development is often coupled with widespread strains on public infrastructure and services, including water access, there exists a need to better understand the expansion of this industry is felt at the community level; more importantly by individuals who are reliant on these infrastructures and services. Through a case study of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, where water insecurity is becoming acute, we draw on and mobilize stories from local community members, alongside non-participant observations and document collection, to 1) document the experience of some community members with water insecurity and shortages, including how they perceive the roles played by the central government and marine ecotourism sector, and 2) examine how community members feel about how communities feel about policies and investment priorities of the central government regarding water insecurity, including the extent to which they view marine ecotourism development as undermining or promoting local needs. Our results underline the complex nature of marine ecotourism governance and infrastructure development outcomes in a resource-insecure island region, demonstrating that current issues are greatly impacted by historical and social underpinnings of neo-colonialism and systemic racism, misalignments of community vs. government development priorities, and eroded political trust, that shape local experiences with sustainable development and local residents’ perceptions of the ability of marine ecotourism to address issues of water insecurity. Moreover, while our focus is on the marine ecotourism industry, the significance of these findings contributes to a growing body of literature that places local experiences at the forefront of research into the implications of sustainable development in island regions.

The double-edged effect of political trust on the COVID-19 pandemic: empirical evidence from China

ABSTRACT This study follows numerous academic discussions on how political trust helps mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Using two waves of pandemic data in China, we estimate whether the central and local political trust has double-edged effects on COVID-19 mitigation. The results show that localities with high political trust were associated with more COVID-19 cases in the first outbreak and long-run rebounds, but also demonstrate notable disparities in COVID-19 cases linked to hierarchical trust between central and local governments. Trust in both central and local government was independently linked to a higher number of COVID-19 cases. However, when considering the impacts of combinations of trust in central and local governments, trust in local government could potentially contribute to the containment of COVID-19. These results add to a growing literature that high political trust may not always be good and echo the well-established association between trust and health, particularly during a pandemic.

How online social support enhances individual resilience in the public health crisis: Testing a dual-process serial mediation model

Under the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, our paper attempts to advance a dual-process model from online social support to individual resilience via diverse social capital (bonding and bridging) and political beliefs (political efficacy, political trust and city identification). Drawing on a survey of 446 residents in Shanghai, China, the findings indicate that neither informational nor emotional social support directly affects individual resilience, but indirectly influences it through different pathways. Specifically, bridging social capital mediates informational social support and individual resilience, but bonding social capital might not follow a similar path. Notably, political efficacy and political trust are involved in the above mediation between informational social support and individual resilience. Besides, the serial mediation effect of emotional social support on individual resilience via bonding social capital and then city identification or political trust is also significant. Our findings are expected to reveal the mechanism of resilience construction and prepare for the future public health crisis.

Political Trust as a Predictor of Vote Buying Attitudes among New Voters

Vote buying activities that often occur close to general election contestations can influence the views of novice voters on politics in Indonesia, one of which is political beliefs. Therefore, this research aims to determine the relationship between political trust and vote buying attitude which was carried out using a correlational quantitative approach. The subjects used in the research were 347 novice voters in Palembang City who were obtained using a purposive sampling technique. The data was measured using the Political Trust Scale from Akhrani (2016), the Vote Buying Scale from Sumantri (2021). Data analysis in this research uses Pearson Product Moment correlation. The results of this study show that there is no relationship between political trust and vote buying attitude (r=-0.009, n=347, p=0.868). This means that there is no significant relationship between the two variables studied. Future research is expected to examine other variables that can influence political trust.Kegiatan vote buying yang sering terjadi mendekati kontestasi pemilihan umum dapat mempengaruhi pandangan pemilih pemula terhadap perpolitikan di Indonesia salahsatunya terhadap kepercayaan politik. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan political trust dan vote buying attitude yang dilakukan menggunkan pendekatan kuantitatif korelasional. Subyek dalam penelitian yang digunakan adalah 347 pemilih pemula di Kota Palembang yang diperoleh dengan teknik purposive sampling. Data yang diukur menggunakan Skala Polotical Trust dari Akhrani (2016), Skala Vote Buying dari Sumantri (2021). Analisis data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan korelasi Pearson Product Moment. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan tidak adanya hubungan antara political trust dengan vote buying attitude (r=-0,009, n=347, p=0.868). Hal ini bermakna bahwa tidak adanya hubungan yang signifikan antara kedua variabel yang diteliti. Penelitian selanjutnya diharapkan untuk meneliti variabel lain yang dapat mempengaruhi political trust.

Comparative Energy Transition Policy: How Exposure, Policy Vulnerability and Trust Affect Popular Acceptance of Policy Expansion

This article examines how exposure to energy transition and climate policy vulnerability influence popular support for more ambitious climate policy. Moreover, it explores whether this relationship depends on a person’s generalized and political trust. Comparing data from surveys in Germany and Switzerland, the findings reveal that perceived exposure to energy transition positively influences climate policy support, while individual climate policy vulnerability decreases it. For individuals with higher levels of trust, exposure helps enhance the positive effect (subjective exposure) or dampen the negative effect (policy vulnerability). These results underscore the importance of incorporating trust and subjective perceptions into climate policy frameworks.

Political trust and legitimacy crisis in the age of COVID-19: an assessment of the EndSARS protest in Nigeria

The article examined the manifestations of political trust deficits associated with people's response to policy choices of Nigeria's government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many other states, the African states and particularly the Nigerian government adopted WHO-recommended containment measures to limit the spread of the virus and the associated catastrophe. These measures included lockdowns, shutdowns, social distancing, and personal hygiene among other preventive procedures. Even though the pandemic was relatively less endemic in Africa, as per official statistics, African states swiftly implemented the WHO containment measures, which impacted negatively on the livelihood of the average household, who depends on daily incomes for survival. The worsening living condition caused by the containment measures expectedly deepened resentment against governments in Africa with already poor records of public service delivery, accountability, transparency, and human rights. Nigeria was one of the African countries that experienced citizens' backlash and violent outrage against government policy choices during the COVID-19. Under the guise fighting police brutality, youths staged mass anti-government protests that transformed into large scale violence, particularly in the southern parts of the country otherwise known as the “EndSARS Protests.” The protests were conceived against police brutality in the enforcement of COVID-19 measures. This article examined the outbreak of EndSARS protests as a transformation of the deepening of political trust deficits in age of COVID-19. It adopted qualitative approach using documentary evidence such as newspaper reports and official documents as instruments of data collection. The Institutional Performance Theory guided the article. The theory assumes that the actual performance of government determines citizens' level of trust and confidence in public institutions. The article found that perennial government inefficiency, limited accountability and transparency as well as poor human rights records of the government and its agencies, particularly the police exacerbated an already existing political trust deficits amongst the people in Nigeria. This was manifested in the outburst of a large-scale violent outrage by the youths as protest to the government containment measures and widespread dysfunctional governmental institutions and particularly police brutality. The article concluded that building trust is particularly important for governments, as this can be achieved through output sense, the provision of public goods, or social support.

Re-Conceptualization of Political Trust in Relation to Justice

Re-Conceptualization of Political Trust in Relation to Justice

Why Economic Inequality Undermines Political Trust: An Analysis of Mechanisms

Abstract Research suggests that economic inequality reduces political trust after the public recognizes the inequality and perceives it as a failure of the political system in Western democracies. This study challenges this presumed “output evaluation model” (OEM) both theoretically and empirically. We provide an alternative mediator evaluation model (MEM) contending that objective inequality affects political trust through government-performance mediators, without requiring accurate public perception of inequality or specific regime types. With nationwide economic inequality and public opinion data from China, we examined both the OEM implication and four MEM mechanisms through impartial governance, responsiveness, judicial fairness, and anti-corruption efforts. Findings indicate that the mediating mechanisms, rather than direct inequality, shape political trust, with robust evidence even after addressing endogeneity. This study broadens the understanding of the intricate relationship between systemic conditions and individual perceptions, offering significant insights into the dynamics of trust in political institutions in a general sense.

Citizen Participation and Political Trust in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Machine Learning Approach

Citizen Participation and Political Trust in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Machine Learning Approach

Sympathies for Putin Within the German Public: A Consequence of Political Alienation?

AbstractWhy do individuals in democratic nations sympathize with autocratic leaders from abroad? In this article, we address this general question with regard to Germans’ attitudes toward Vladimir Putin in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Building on the intuition that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and its formalization in balance theory, our study focuses on the role of political alienation at home. To study this role comprehensively, we consider several facets of political alienation: a lack of trust in political institutions, low support for democracy as a regime, a sense of estrangement from public discourse, and an inclination toward conspiracy thinking. Using longitudinal analyses on data from the German Longitudinal Election Study panel, we provide empirical evidence consistent with our argument that political alienation—particularly in terms of low political trust and a proclivity for conspiracy thinking—drives sympathies for Putin and his regime. Against the backdrop of mounting attempts by Russia and other autocratic powers to influence discourses in Western societies via some segments of society, our findings illuminate one important source of sympathy for Putin and, potentially, foreign autocrats more broadly.

Measuring Trust in Public Sector Organizations – Research Note

The study aims to develop and psychometrically test an instrument to assess trust in public sector organizations. Although trust-based management is of interest in many municipalities in the Nordic countries, an instrument to assess trust adapted for this context is lacking. The present study complies with Luhmann’s system theory and commonly used instruments in this tradition. Data from 240 first-line managers (RR 75%) and 1,871 employees (RR 47%) from all departments in one Swedish municipality were analyzed with a multi-level approach. Out of 16 initial items presented to first-line managers and employees, 8 were retained after the psychometrical testing in both samples. Factor loadings at both within and between levels, and the multilevel homology when exploring convergent and criterion-related validity, showed a similar pattern of two distinct factors. Similar to other previously developed instruments, Supervisory Trust was one dimension. The second construct Organizational Trust included items on trust in politicians and administrative specialists, in addition to trust in top-level managers. The Public Sector Organizational Trust Inventory can be recommended for use in future research on trust at individual as well as group levels.

Rethinking representative democracy in Croatia

The article analyses the development of representative democracy in Croatia from its independence to today. During the 1990s, Croatia changed its electoral system several times and had a bicameral parliament. With the constitutional changes implemented in 2001, the legislative power was organized on a unicameral principle. At the same time, the previous semi-presidential system was replaced by a parliamentary one. These changes represent only the basic framework within which representative democracy in Croatia developed over time. An important milestone in this development was the introduction of preferential voting at the national elections in 2015, which allowed the voters to vote for a particular list and a specific candidate on that list. According to some, this improved the problematic state of inner-party democracy, although, for others, the reform was not far-reaching enough. Given that representative democracy does not function in a vacuum, the article also considers the impact of direct democracy on the functioning of representative democracy in Croatia. Referring to the Croatian experience, it argues that this complementary form of democracy had a positive impact on the quality of representative democracy in the country. Nevertheless, in the face of representative democracy in Croatia, many open questions still need to be addressed. The most important one is how to increase the turnout in the elections, which is still comparatively low and arguably related to the low trust in politics.

Dampak Konflik Agraria Terhadap Kepercayaan Politik Petani Di Sumatera Utara

This paper aims to analyze the impact of agrarian conflicts on the political trust of peasants who are victims of agrarian conflict in North Sumatra. The study utilizes political trust theory and agrarian conflict as analytical tools with a qualitative approach. Political trust serves as the foundation of the relationship between society and the state, shaped by the government's performance in policy or conflict resolution, such as agrarian conflicts. Agrarian conflicts typically manifest through actions like land grabbing, the unilateral takeover of land by companies, the exploitation of natural resources for economic gain, leading to the displacement of traditional peasants, and violations of peasants' rights, such as criminalization or distancing peasants from agrarian sources. The research results indicate that agrarian conflicts have influenced the political trust of peasants due to the lack of clarity in enforcing agrarian conflict resolution rules, the unfair distribution of resources, and the unequal opportunity for peasants to access justice.

On the Immoral Campaign Trail: Conceptualization, Underlying Affective Processes, and Democratic Outcomes of Perceived Dirty Campaigning

Dirty campaigning, which is understood as actions between elite politicians that violate social norms and democratic principles, is becoming an increasingly relevant phenomenon across the globe. Despite this development, we know little about which forms constitute dirty campaigning, how citizens perceive dirty campaigning, and how perceived dirty campaigning is associated with affective responses and political trust. We argue that the techniques and actions that constitute dirty campaigning go beyond uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques, as dirty campaigning also involves disinformation campaigning. Using data from a two-wave panel study ( N = 524) during the 2020 Viennese state election campaign, we examined the perceived structure of the dirty campaigning construct using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. We show that perceived dirty campaigning forms a hierarchical construct with three latent variables. Furthermore, we tested the associations of perceived dirty campaigning with negative emotions toward campaigns as well as outcomes related to political trust. Using structural equation modeling with longitudinal measurement invariance and controlling for autoregressive associations, we found that perceived dirty campaigning increases anger, frustration, and disgust toward campaigns, as well as increases distrust in politicians over time. We also observed that frustration toward campaigns decreases trust in democracy and that disgust toward campaigns increases distrust in politicians over time. We contribute to previous research by developing a framework for investigating perceived dirty campaigning as a hierarchical construct and demonstrating how perceived dirty campaigning can impair democratic outcomes.

Tough Positions, Trustful Voters? How Mainstream Party Position-Taking on Immigration Shapes Political Trust and its Impact on Far-Right Voting

Abstract Mainstream parties have taken increasingly restrictive immigration policy positions across Western Europe. Yet the political consequences of this behaviour for citizens' democratic norms and practices are still not well understood. This article focuses on public political trust. Bridging the literatures on immigration-related trust and spatial theory, the spotlight is put on the consequences of mainstream party position-taking on immigration for the interconnectedness of citizens' immigration policy preferences, political distrust and far-right voting. An analysis of data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey and European Social Survey across 14 Western European democracies (2006–2018) suggests that tougher immigration positions of centre-right parties in government weaken the link between immigration scepticism and political distrust and, in turn, the relevance of political distrust as a precursor of far-right voting. This has important implications for our understanding of immigration politics and advances the existing literatures on party competition, political trust and far-right voting in several ways.

Correction: Education-based affective attitudes: higher educated-bias is related to more political trust and less populism

Correction: Education-based affective attitudes: higher educated-bias is related to more political trust and less populism

How to Convey Trustworthiness via Social Media: Content Analysis and Citizen Testing of British MPs’ Facebook Posts

Abstract The low and declining level of political trust in the UK is well documented but less is known about how citizens form trust judgements and how politicians can influence perceptions of trustworthiness through social media. This article addresses these important questions using a novel combination of content analysis and survey research, operationalising academic theory on political trust within the context of Facebook communication through a new lens. The findings offer a unique insight into how trustworthiness is conveyed on social media and the types of content that display competence, integrity and authenticity. UK citizens’ perceptions of MP communication are tested in an original survey using embedded Facebook content, allowing key features of high- and low-trust posts to be identified.

Outcomes, Politicians, or the Institution Itself? Using a Czech Case to Explain Trust Formation in Different Political Institutions and the Implications for Voter Turnout

Compared to the scholarship on general political trust, relatively little attention has been paid to institutional trust. Research on the subject tends to treat political institutions as single entities, ignoring the fact that different institutions can enjoy, in the long term, very different levels of trust. This paper builds on the assumption that institutional trust may be formed differently depending on the institution type, and thus aims to explain how trust is formed in different types of democratic institutions. Moreover, it explains how the relationship between trust in a political institution and voter turnout can change depending on how trust is formed. The study is based on the content analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews from the Czech Republic. The study shows that respondents tend to develop trust in a political institution based on their assessment of the institution’s current performance and outcomes rather than their assessment of the institution itself. The study argues that an integral part of the concept of trust in a political institution is the popularity of the politicians who represent the institution. However, how trust is formed depends on the type of institution, which has important implications for measuring this concept. The relationship between institutional trust and turnout may also vary depending on how trust in an institution is formed. Thus, a potential correlation between trust in an institution and electoral participation may exist depending on the type of an institution.

Trust at Risk: The Effect of Proximity to Cyberattacks

Abstract Proximity is a core feature of theories of political violence, with the effects of attacks rippling outward so that geographically proximate individuals experience more severe effects than those more distant. However, this model of proximity and exposure is unlikely to recur for cyberattacks. The incorporeality of cyber incidents and the absence of a physical epicenter constrain the mechanism coupling physical distance with harm. To empirically test the relationship between proximity and cyberattacks, we conducted a field study involving 707 German respondents following a ransomware attack in Düsseldorf. We find that the classical “ripple effect” is reversed, with political trust highest among people closer to the attack and lowest among those geographically distant. We postulate that in the absence of firsthand exposure to its effects, geographically distant individuals employ abstract conceptions of the consequences of cyber incidents that do not align with actual events. Consequently, distance does not confer security, and it can even amplify the adverse effects of exposure. This finding highlights the need for governments to actively work to assuage public fears following cyberattacks.