Explaining the ‘democratic malaise’ in unequal societies: Inequality, external efficacy and political trust

Abstract

Previous scholarship suggests that rising inequality in democracies suppresses trust in institutions. However, the mechanism behind this has not clearly been identified. This paper investigates the proposition that income inequality leads to increased democratic distrust by depressing perceptions of external efficacy. Based on time‐series cross‐sectional survey data from the European Social Survey, we find that changes in income inequality have a negative effect on changes in political trust and external efficacy. Causal mediation analysis confirms that inequality affects trust through lower efficacy. Further analyses show that this efficacy‐based mechanism does not depend on political orientation. As a direct effect remains among left‐wing respondents, our empirical results indicate that inequality affects trust via both a mechanism of substantive output evaluation and a process‐based evaluation that measures of external efficacy can capture. These findings highlight the empirical and theoretical relevance of this so far neglected mechanism and provide a potential solution for the puzzle that inequality depresses trust also among those for whom inequality is not politically salient.

Unequal perspectives? Income inequality as a benchmark for support for European integration

“…As noted, studies of national settings have found that high and rising income inequalities undermine trust in political institutions across societal strata (Andersen et al, 2014;Christmann, 2018;Goubin and Hooghe, 2020). While a negative assessment of institutional performance would damage the perceptions of egalitarian citizens (Anderson and Singer, 2008), inequalities may also produce a drop in generalized social trust and perceived political efficacy, which could even hurt the institutional trust of those individuals who do not favour redistribution (Bienstman et al, 2023;Rothstein and Uslaner, 2005). A plausible expectation is that these effects spill over into lower trust in EU institutions, as citizens with limited knowledge of EU affairs would use the national context as a proxy and extrapolate their judgements about the latter (Anderson, 1998;Kritzinger, 2003).…”

What Does It Take for Immigrants to Join Political Parties?

“…In addition to the direct effect internal efficacy has on the intention to participate in conventional action, it also mediates the predictive power political knowledge and personality traits have on citizens' decision to take political action (Reichert, 2016;Vecchione & Caprara, 2009). Furthermore, external efficacy is related to political trust (Bienstman et al, 2023;Craig et al, 1990) and perceptions of institutions' responsiveness (Abramson & Aldrich, 1982). CIO have often been described as less informed about the politics of the country of residence, with lower levels of civic skills or language skills and lower levels of political and social trust (Quintelier, 2009;Xu & Jin, 2018).…”

The economic foundations of democratic legitimacy: Exploring the relationship of macroeconomic inequality and trust in democratic institutions in Europe

“…A different perspective emphasises that inequality may affect trust not only via a mechanism of substantive output evaluation, but also via a more process-based evaluation that measures of external efficacy can capture (Bienstman, Hense, Gangl, 2023). The basic reasoning can be summarised as follows: When economic inequality translates into unequal political resources and power, or when basic needs of large segments of the population are not met, people may perceive that not all interests are equally heeded and become cynical about their ability to influence the political process (see .…”