Just sick of it? Health and political trust in Western Europe

Abstract

This article explores two theoretical possibilities for why personal health may affect political trust: the psychological‐democratic contract theory, and the role of personal experience in opinion formation. It argues that citizens with health impairments are more likely to experience the direct effects of political decisions as they are more dependent on public health services. Negative subjective evaluations of public services can lower trust levels, especially if people's expectations are high. Using European Social Survey data, the association between health and trust in 19 Western European states is analysed. The results indicate that people in poor health exhibit lower levels of trust towards the political system than people in good health. The differences in trust between those in good and poor health are accentuated among citizens with left‐leaning ideological values. The results suggest that welfare issues may constitute a rare context in which personal, rather than collective, experiences affect opinion formation.

Does Health Affect Party Identification? Evidence from German Panel Data

“…Thus, the negative impact of health on party identification seems to be rather resilient. This observation is compatible with the findings of Mattila and Rapeli (2018) who have demonstrated that declining health is associated with lower levels of political trust. Finally, to understand the association between health and party identification better, future studies should use such measures of health, which would differentiate between mental and physical health issues.…”

Does poor health mobilize people into action? Health, political trust, and participation

“…Existing research has shown that the relationship between the first four of these factors and the individuals' general health status is either weak or inconsistent (Mattila et al, 2017: 53-64;Papageorgiou et al, 2019). However, the situation is different for political trust, as health and trust seem to be quite closely connected (Mattila and Rapeli, 2018). Hence, I will next concentrate more on this potential trust-mediated mechanism between health status and participation.…”

“…1 Based on previous results, I assume that poor health leads to lower levels of trust, which, in turn, has implications for political participation. Previous studies have shown that health is strongly connected to political trust: people in poor health are less trusting of political actors and the political system than those in good health, with the differences between health groups being largest in Nordic welfare states such as Finland (Mattila and Rapeli, 2018). One reason for low trust among people with poor health may be related to the gap between citizens' expectations and their assessment of the reality of government outputs.…”

Interest through necessity? The impact of personal health on the stability of political interest in the United Kingdom

“…Kinder, 1998: 802; see Weeden and Kurzban, 2017: 72 for a review). Healthcare, and social policy more broadly, are areas where self-interest seems to play a particularly salient role (Hacker et al, 2013; Margalit, 2013; Mattila and Rapeli, 2018; Owens and Pedulla, 2014). People who are concerned about medical costs also support more universal healthcare coverage (Henderson and Hillygus, 2011).…”