Trust in Politicians and Satisfaction with Government – A Reciprocal Causation Approach for European Countries
- 24 July 2017
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Journal of Civil Society
- Vol. 13 (4), 392-405
- https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2017.1385160
Abstract
Trust and satisfaction with the government are the most important indicators of a functioning democratic system. Scholars diverge in their opinions of whether satisfaction causes trust or vice versa or whether both variables reinforce each other simultaneously. This study applies an instrumental variable approach to shed light on this discussion. We employ a sample of 7166 individuals in 3 European countries (i.e., Germany, France, and Great Britain) obtained from the European Social Survey to test this reciprocal relationship. By comparing these three countries with fundamentally different political systems, we investigate the contingency of the reciprocal effect with regard to the political context. The results confirm the reciprocal relationship but reveal differences between the three investigated countries.Keywords
This publication has 41 references indexed in Scilit:
- Trust in Government and Media SlantThe International Journal of Press/Politics, 2015
- The loss of trust in the European Union during the great recession since 2007: The role of heuristics from the national political systemEuropean Union Politics, 2013
- Instrumental Variables in Sociology and the Social SciencesAnnual Review of Sociology, 2012
- On making causal claims: A review and recommendationsThe Leadership Quarterly, 2010
- Cognitive Dissonance and Post‐Decision Attitude Change in Six Presidential ElectionsPolitical Psychology, 2001
- Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural ExperimentsPublished by National Bureau of Economic Research ,2001
- The Origins and Consequences of Public Trust in GovernmentPublic Opinion Quarterly, 2000
- Testing for the equivalence of factor covariance and mean structures: The issue of partial measurement invariance.Psychological Bulletin, 1989
- Comment: The Political Relevance of Trust in GovernmentAmerican Political Science Review, 1974
- Peer Influences on Aspirations: A ReinterpretationAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1968