Trust

1
Trust

• GOVT311 Lecture 14

2
Legitimacy

• Do people recognize the right of the government
  to rule?
• Trust in government provides legitimacy to the
  government, especially among democratic
  governments that require the consent of the
  governed.
• Allows elected officials to act
• In modern history, trust in democratic government
  has been a real concern in emerging democracies.

3
What is trust?

• Support for democratic core values
• Support for democratic institutions
• Support for other players, such as political
  parties or elected officials

4
Political efficacy

• Can you affect the political process?

High Trust
Blind loyalty
Ideal citizen
High Efficacy
Low Efficacy
Cynical
Protesters, militias
Low Trust
5
Trust in Federal Government
6
Waste Money A Lot
7
Politics is Too Complicated
8
How Much Does Government NOT Listen to the
People
9
Quite a FewGovernment Officials Are Crooked
10
Trust in Federal Government

• Trust in Government is related to
• Events (Vietnam, Civil Rights, Watergate,
  Economy)
• Negative news
• Government performance
• Even with low levels of trust, we havent seen a
  revolution in the United States

11
Support for Core Values

• People in the United States generally have
  overwhelming support for core democratic values
• Majority rule, minority rights, freedom of
  speech, freedom of political dissent
• Support becomes mixed when there is a double
  stimulus
• For example, when a democratic value freedom to
  run for office is asked in terms of allowing a
  KKK member to run for office, support declines.
• At the ballot box, the government has
  consistently deprived unpopular minorities their
  civil liberties and rights

12
Democratic Elitism

• Those persons most supportive of democratic core
  values are those that are in positions of power
  and those that are most knowledgeable about
  politics.
• Was Marx right? Are the masses are duped, and if
  given the chance would rise up against the
  established order?
• Other researchers have countered the democratic
  elitism theory to point out that among many
  issues and core values, there is no difference
  between elites and the masses. Furthermore,
  elites have a habit of acting in un-democratic
  ways, too.
• Some have noted that the those with more
  education may have been socialized to provide the
  politically correct response, without a true
  difference in core values.

13
Hibbing Why People Dont Like Government

• People resent special interest power
• Ironically, people dont want to increase their
  own power.
• Explains why people like term limits and the
  Supreme Court as checks on power.
• Reform Solution limit the special interests, and
  the profits government officials can make from
  them.

14
Consensus

• Is there a tension between majority rule and
  protecting minority rights (The Federalists)
• Democracies work best when there is a broad
  consensus of opinion
• Cleavages ethnicity, religion, language, tribes
• Countries that are divided ethnically, etc.
  do not use majority rule
• Places with severe conflict Northern Ireland,
  Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria,
  South Africa
• The United States is fortunate in that its
  cleavages are relatively minor (race, class,
  religion)

15
The masses act together

• Support for democratic values may be conditioned
  on the times the most reviled group is most
  likely to be repressed. Elites respond to the
  masses and adjust their rhetoric and actions
  accordingly.
• In a similar manner, there must be broad support
  for repression for it to occur. Do people really
  try to keep atheists from speaking, or are they
  simply responding to a question?

16
Psychology

• An attempt to explain abnormal political
  thought (against the core democratic values) was
  initiated after World War II
• Is prejudice, distrust, etc. a manifestation of
  internal personal problems?
• People who like authoritarianism had parents who
  liked to punish them for bad behavior
• Is this a society-level problem (Latin-American
  countries have the macho male-dominated society
  with deference to authority
• Link between authoritarian personality and
  support for racism, racist political parties,
  etc.

17
Trust in Local Government

• People generally trust local government (and the
  Supreme Court) more than the national government
• Why? Interpret Norrander and Wilcox p.297
• Self-interest homeowners less likely to trust
• Minorities less
• Positive retrospective sociotropic more
• Positive efficacy more
• Positive national trust more
• Conservative less
• Community SES income less, education more
• Racial heterogeneity less

18
Trust in Democracy in Post-Communist Countries

• New Democracies no tradition of democratic
  government, cannot pick and choose which parts of
  democracy they like and dislike
• From 1991-1998 stable pattern of support for
  democratic and former communist regimes
• Central European countries more supportive of new
  democratic regimes than former Soviet Union
  countries
• More nostalgia for former communist regimes in
  former Soviet Union
• Surprisingly sizable support (around 20) for
  alternatives, such as monarchy
• Citizens expect things to improve

19
Transition to Democracy

• Creates economic chaos, which reduces support for
  democracy and positive evaluation of economy.
  People actually are nostalgic for old economy
• Who supports Democracy (in both Central Europe
  and former Soviet Union)
• Those that support old regime, less supportive of
  new
• Those with positive (socio-tropic) evaluations of
  economy are more supportive
• Younger, better educated, church attending people
  show more support, but only slightly