What Evidence is there that Trust in Politicians has declined in Recent Years?

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Michael Desborough

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What Evidence is there that Trust in Politicians has declined in Recent Years?

According to many in the media, the level of trust in political processes has been dwindling in recent years. Most use complex arguments to suggest reasons for this and point to different evidence to justify their arguments. The extent to which this is down to the trust of the people working within these systems may be difficult to calculate, aside from the trust in the actual democratic systems. Fukuyama (1995) points towards cultural reasons for a lack of trust in political figures, in his writings he suggests that societies with a network of organisations and groups, such as Japan, lend themselves to ‘A group-orientated rather than state orientated culture’. Before we look at the arguments for and against this statement, we must look at what trust and political trust is.

Putnam (1995) tells us that social trust is ‘a belief that others will take care of our interests’ and ‘at the very least not harm them’. Social trust and Political trust are often seen as closely linked (Axford et al. 2002). Social trust is a strong determinant of trust in political leaders (Newton 1999) according to many writers on the subject, including Fukuyama. However, it is suggested that we are cautious about making a direct link between Social and Political trust, and this is a major criticism of Putnam’s work. Taking the disputed link between social and political trust further, and using it as a basis for the idea of political trust and trust in politicians, we can look closely at his study.

The idea of group membership and identification being a contributory factor in levels of political trust is studied by the American Political scientist and Harvard professor, Robert Putnam. In his articles ‘Bowling Alone’ and ‘Bowling together’, in the ‘Journal of Democracy’ and ‘The American Prospect’ he explains his theory. Putnam (1995) talks of ‘significant change in patterns of social engagement since the 1950s’. When he analysed data he collected he found that a steady decline in both political involvement, and non-political society membership, had been taking place. This he suggests results in falling levels of political trust and therefore a poorer quality government. Since we are only interested in the levels of political trust, the contested link between good government and levels of public engagement are not of interest.

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Reasons behind the fall in social capital are suggested by Putnam (1995) one of which is economic, such as greater affluence amongst the workforce and higher levels of consumerism. Also, changing involvement levels of women in working environments which themselves are altering. Cited in the work of Putnam and subsequently others is the role of the media, and in particular television in falling levels of social capital that, in turn, drive the levels of social trust downwards. I will look at this theory about media influence and those of others, after examining briefly the criticisms of Putnam’s work and ...

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