Trust In President Research Articles

Trust in president – a different case? Individual-level patterns of trust in political executives in Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT People seem to trust the president more than other national political institutions. In the context of semi-presidential regimes, it is plausible that the role of the president being “above party politics” is an explanatory factor behind this pattern. This study challenges the argument by analysing the impact of citizens' party preferences and attitudes towards the political system on trust in president in select CEE countries. The results confirm that trust in president is often context specific and cannot be disassociated from partisan factors. In general, similar patterns are found between trust in president and trust in prime minister.

РОЗРОБКА ТИПОЛОГІЇ ЕЛЕКТОРАЛЬНИХ ГРУП УКРАЇНИ НА ОСНОВІ СОЦІАЛЬНО-ПСИХОЛОГІЧНИХ КРИТЕРІЇВ

Background. The development of new approaches to the study of the electorate in the inter-election period is a rather urgent scientific challenge. The hypothesis was tested that socio-psychological features of voters are among the indicators that distinguish supporters of some political subjects from others and can be the basis for assigning voters to certain electoral groups. The purpose of this study was to determine the main electoral groups represented in Ukrainian society on the example of the city of Kyiv and the Kyiv region and to identify their differences based on the analysis of socio-psychological characteristics of voters. Methods. The research uses methods of online survey of respondents using a panel of psychological methods for researching personal traits, values, needs, political and ideological self-determination, political participation and activity, national identity, paternalism of voters, as well as methods of mathematical data processing. Results. Based on a retrospective analysis of the electoral choice in the 2019 presidential elections of Ukraine, an analysis of trust in President V. Zelensky and the respondents' subjective assessment of the effectiveness of state authorities in domestic and foreign policy, it was possible to single out nine electoral groups in the electorate: convinced supporters of V. Zelensky, the newly arrived electorate of V. Zelensky, the negative supporters of V. Zelensky, the disillusioned electorate of V. Zelensky, the electorate of P. Poroshenko who has improved his attitude towards V. Zelensky, the electorate gravitating towards P. Poroshenko, convinced supporters of P. Poroshenko, newly arrived uncertain and scattered absentees. The features of each group are described according to socio-demographic and socio-psychological criteria. Conclusions. It is shown that electoral groups can be differentiated not only by socio-demographic features, but also by personal, value and other psychological characteristics. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed model of differentiation of the electorate, it is considered appropriate to test the approach on a large representative sample through a nationwide survey.

Political Activity Indicators in Public Opinion Surveys

Indicators of regular public opinion surveys are analysed in the aspect of political activity. The main attention of analysis was focused on the indicators of voting preferences ‘will not vote’, ‘don’t know’ and ‘no answer’, also on frequencies of mentioning popular politicians in an open question, neutral answers to questions about trust in President and Seimas. The empirical basis of the paper is surveys conducted in 1989–2020 and the joined file of eleven surveys in 2019. The analysis of the data shows the difference in the answers ‘don’t know who to vote for’ before and after the elections: after the elections a considerably bigger part of respondents have their opinion on voting preferences. In an open question ‘Which politicians, in your opinion, best represent your interests?’, the highest result was fixed in 1989–1990, in the time of the highest political activity in society, and the lowest was fixed in the 20s. The neutral evaluations of President are in a close connection with positive attitudes to this institution and the neutral evaluations of Seimas are in a close relation with negative attitudes to this institution.

The Effect of Stalin's Deportations on Distrust in Central Authority

We investigate the effect of deportations under Stalin on the long run distrust in central authority. In the Soviet Union about 2.8 million people of nine ethnic groups were deported by Stalin from their homelands to Siberia and Central Asia in the 1940s. Unlike other deported ethnic groups, Germans, Crimean Tatars and Turks-Meskhetians were not rehabilitated after Stalin’s death and stayed in the areas of their deportations till the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Using regional data from the 1991 referendum on the future of the Soviet Union and data from the Life in Transition survey, we find that deportations have a negative effect on trust in central authority. The long-term effect is stronger for unrehabilitated ethnic groups, especially Germans who were the most numerous deported ethnic group. The quantitative effect is significant: an increase in the share of deported Germans by 1% implies a decrease in the percentage of votes in favor of the Soviet Union in the referendum by 0.75% and a decrease in probability of trust in president by 5% nowadays.

How to Make Governments More Responsive in Africa?

In this paper, I analyze the relationship between satisfaction with democracy, trust in President, perception of corruption, economic conditions and perceptions of government performance in improving living standard of the poor. Using afrobarometer data, I find out that from one country to another, there is a gap between supply and demand regarding positive perception of government performance in improving poor living condition. However, results indicate that satisfaction with democracy, reduction of corruption and best economic reforms can improve the approval of government performance in living standard for the poor. Finally, by using the propensity score method, I demonstrate that positive perception of economic condition has a positive effect on perception of improving living standard of the poor. These results suggest that in African countries, policy agenda should focus on economic reforms to reach their responsiveness in improving living standard for the poor.