The Decline of Political Trust and the Rise of Populism in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-60
Author(s):  
Manfred Berg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States

The Implications of Political Trust for Supporting Public Transport

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
JAE YOUNG LIM ◽  
KUK-KYOUNG MOON
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
Pooled Data ◽  
Policy Attitudes

Abstract Despite the importance of public transport for urban vitality, social equity, and mobility, the discussions surrounding these topics have become heated ideological battles between liberals and conservatives in the United States, as in other countries. Conservatives, in particular, have exhibited anti-transit attitudes that have worked against the development of public transport. Scholars note that political trust functions as a heuristic and its impact is felt more strongly among individuals who face ideological risks with respect to a given public policy. Based on several studies noting the relationships between political trust, ideology and policy attitudes, the study employs the pooled data of the 2010 and 2014 General Social Surveys. It finds that conservatives are negatively associated with supporting spending on public transport, but when contingent upon high levels of political trust, they become more supportive of it. The study discusses the potential of political trust as a mechanism to influence public policy discourses as well as certain methodological and substantive limitations.

Trust in Government and the American Public’s Responsiveness to Rising Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 790-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Combine Data ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Relationship

The United States has become increasingly unequal. Income inequality has risen dramatically since the 1970s, yet public opinion toward redistribution has remained largely unchanged. This is puzzling, given Americans’ professed concern regarding, and knowledge of, rising inequality. I argue that trust in government can help to reconcile this. I combine data on state-level income inequality with survey data from the Cumulative American National Election Studies (CANES) from 1984 to 2016. I find that trust in government conditions the relationship between inequality and redistribution, with higher inequality prompting demand for government redistribution, but only among politically trustful individuals. This holds among conservatives and non-conservatives and among the affluent and non-affluent. These findings underscore the relevance of political trust in shaping attitudes toward inequality and economic redistribution and contribute to our understanding of why American public opinion has not turned in favor of redistribution during an era of rising income inequality.

The Arts as a Polarized Issue and the Role of Political Trust in Promoting the Arts: Evidence From the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Lim Jae Young ◽  
Woo Harin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Moderating Role

The arts in the United States, for a long time received strong support from both sides of the political aisle. However, in recent years, the arts have been transformed into a partisan issue that pits conservatives against liberals. The article points to the importance of political trust as a means of helping conservatives overcome their ideological inclinations and support the arts. Scholars argue that political trust influences more strongly individuals who perceive a given policy to be one that imposes ideological risks for them compared with those without such risks. Focusing on the moderating role of political trust, the article examines whether political trust can help alleviate the conservatives’ hostility to the arts. Relying on the 2016 General Social Survey, the article finds that conservatives have no direct relationship with arts spending, but they will be more likely to support arts spending when this is contingent upon political trust.

scholarly journals Political Trust in a Cynical Age

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Citrin ◽  
Laura Stoker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Recent Survey ◽  
Media Priming ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Sources Of Variation

This article reviews recent survey-based research on citizens’ trust in government, focusing particularly on the United States. It addresses the long-term decline in trust and potential causes for this decline, with an emphasis on the effects of partisanship, polarization, performance, process, and media priming. While dispositions can anchor trust levels, the dominant research findings show that the sources of variation and change in trust are political, if multifaceted, in nature. We discuss new versions of standard measures, call for a renewed look at the distinction between trust in authorities and trust in the regime, review ongoing work on how and why trust matters, and recommend broadening the foci of mistrust to include antiestablishment sentiments and attacks on electoral integrity. How trust intervenes between perceptions of political processes and compliance with authoritative commands is a critical domain for additional research. We conclude with a caveat against confidence that the decline in trust can be quickly or easily reversed.

Political Efficacy, Political Trust, and the Action Orientations of University Students in Kuwait

1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tawfic E. Farah ◽  
Faisal S. A. Al-Salem
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
University Students ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
The Individual

Noting the limitations of the macroanalytic approach in the study of politics, a group of political scientists have focused their attention on individual members of the society—their systems of political belief, expectations, and aspirations. This group is concerned with the individual's “cognitive,” “affective,” and “evaluative” orientations toward the system.But unlike the United States, where numerous authoritative writings focus on the belief system of the individual, there has been only limited research investigating the belief system of Arabs in general and Kuwaiti Arabs in particular.

scholarly journals The System Works Fine: The Positive Relationship Between Emphasis on Individual Explanations for Inequality and External Political Efficacy

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Greenwood-Hau
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Political System ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Status ◽  
The Impact

This article addresses the largely overlooked question of whether explanations for inequality are related to appraisals of the political system. It posits a positive relationship between individual explanations for inequality and three indicators of appraisals of the political system: satisfaction with democracy, political trust, and external political efficacy. Individual explanations for inequality are a form of system justifying belief and constitute part of a wider ideological view of the status quo social order as just and defensible. This positive view of the functioning of society may flow over into appraisals of the political system, imply a positive disposition towards high-status groups including politicians, and remove the motivation to blame the political system for ongoing inequality (which is instead seen in a positive, meritocratic light). The relationships between explanations for inequality and appraisals of the political system are tested for the first time in the United States, using 2002 ANES data, and in Great Britain, using data from a survey fielded in 2014. The results in the United States show few consistent or significant relationships between explanations for inequality and any of the appraisals of the political system. However, the results in Great Britain show consistent, robust, and statistically significant positive relationships between individual explanations for inequality and external political efficacy. The inconsistency in these results may stem from the differing temporal and national contexts of the surveys. It is also likely that the ranking measures of explanations for inequality in the GB data distinguished respondents for whom individual explanations are particularly important, who have a less negative appraisal of external political efficacy. However, more work is required to investigate the effects of question format, the impact of national and temporal context, and the causal direction of the relationship between explanations for inequality and appraisals of the political system.

Political Trust and Polarization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc J. Hetherington ◽  
Thomas J. Rudolph
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Evaluative Criteria

Trust in government in the United States has become increasingly polarized along partisan lines. Republicans and Democrats are now quite reluctant to trust government when the other party is in power. This chapter explores the sources and consequences of polarized political trust. Analysis of panel data suggests that polarized trust is the result of negative affect toward opposing partisans and a motivated reasoning process in which partisans place greater weight on the evaluative criteria that favor their preferred political party. The chapter further shows that polarized trust has important consequences for individuals’ policy preferences. We explain how the polarization of political trust has contributed to ongoing political dysfunction in Washington. In particular, the results suggest that the polarization of trust encourages party leaders to do what is best for their political party even if it is not best for the larger public interest.

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