Healthy or harmful distrust? On the democratic relevance of political scepticism over blind (dis)trust

Introduction

Paradoxically, representative democracy requires not only citizens’ trust in the institutions of democracy, but also a healthy dose of political scepticism towards these institutions. Scholars have warned against the detrimental effects of blind trust and blind distrust. The former would make citizens susceptible to manipulation, while the latter could lead to alienation.

Evaluative (Dis)Trust

By contrast, (dis)trust that is not blind but evaluative stimulates vigilant civic engagement. While blind (dis)trust would lead to an anomic democracy, evaluative (dis)trust would stimulate democratic reinvigoration and accountability. We should therefore not merely distinguish between political trust and distrust, but also between dispositional/blind and evaluative (dis)trust.

Research Gap

However, empirical studies of political trust focus almost exclusively on the level of trust. The standard political trust survey items cannot distinguish blind (dis)trust from evaluative (dis)trust. This vast lacuna at the heart of political trust research has left major questions in the field unanswered, including:

1. Trends in political trust
2. Causes of political trust
3. Consequences of political trust

Project Overview

CRITICALTRUST addresses this fundamental problem. It first develops a novel, two-dimensional model of political (dis)trust and creates new measures that distinguish blind from evaluative (dis)trust. This model and these measures will be the foundation for primary data collection, which includes a large-N survey and experiments.

Methodology

The survey is designed as a three-wave, cross-national panel survey in 8 European countries:

• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Hungary
• The Netherlands
• Portugal
• Sweden
• The United Kingdom

Both the survey’s panel element and the experiments allow us to systematically test causal effects that have long been proposed in the literature.

Conclusion

CRITICALTRUST thereby answers questions that have plagued political trust research for decades. It will offer diagnoses of the risks of low and declining trust, as well as advice to democratic actors on whether and how to stimulate political trust.