Size and Political Trust: Evidence from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom

Denters, Bas

doi:10.1068/c0225

Cited by 137 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…9 In all of the other countries in this western European sample, local authorities are more trusted than national authorities. This confirms patterns observed in prior studies of the US, Japan, Norway, and the UK (Denters, 2002;Jennings, 1998;Pharr, 1997) that people tend to hold greater confidence in local governments than national governments. The size of the gap between trust in local authorities and national government also varies across countries, suggesting that there are important country-to-country differences in how people evaluate different levels of government.…”

Section: Levels Of Trust In Local and National Government In Western supporting

confidence: 91%

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The roots of trust in local government in western Europe

Fitzgerald

Wolak

2014

International Political Science Review

103

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When people say that they trust local authorities, is it simply because they have generalized trust in national government? Or is trust in local government rooted in distinctive considerations, connected to the character of local communities and the balance of power across levels of government? We explore how trust in local and national government differs across individuals and across countries in western Europe. We find that people trust local government for different reasons than those that drive trust in national government. Cross-national differences in levels of trust in government reflect the character of national institutions. While both proportional representation systems and federal systems are power-sharing designs, each has distinctive consequences for trust. When opportunities for voice in local government are high, as in decentralized systems, people report greater trust in local government. When opportunities for voice in national government are limited, as in majoritarian systems, people report lower trust for national government and higher trust in local government.

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Section: Levels Of Trust In Local and National Government In Western supporting

confidence: 91%

“…Dahl and Tufte, 1973;Denters, 2002;Miller, 1988). We build on this work by considering the roots of public confidence in local government in western Europe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

The roots of trust in local government in western Europe

Fitzgerald

Wolak

2014

International Political Science Review

103

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“…However, there is no single or universal size effect. For example, when discussing size and political trust Denters (2002) points to six theoretical approaches suggesting different reasons why size matters. While for instance social trust based on strong personal ties is favoured in small municipalities, the strength of civic society is suggested to increase with size.…”

Section: Local Councillors and Democratic Legitimacymentioning

confidence: 98%

New Public Management Reforms and Democratic Legitimacy: Notions of Democratic Legitimacy among West European Local Councillors

Vabo

Aars

2013

Local Government Studies

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The article extends the question about the notion of democracy to the concept of democratic legitimacy and distinguishes between input and output-based legitimacy. We explore local councillors' view on the two alternative notions of legitimacy. The first question is descriptive and concerns the support for alternative notions of democratic legitimacy among councillors across twelve West European countries. What notion of legitimacy receives the stronger support: input-based legitimacy, associated with representative democracy and participation, or output-based legitimacy, emphasising the performance of democratic institutions -as promoted by New Public Management reforms? The second question is explanatory and concerns whether the view held by the councillors depends on the multi-level government system in a specific country. We assume that the more responsibility for the production of welfare services held by local government, the more support output-oriented legitimacy measures is likely to receive. We find that our measures of input-based legitimacy receive more widespread support than the measures of output-based legitimacy. As regards the impact of local government systems and responsibilities held by local governments our main hypothesis does gain some support, but the results are not significant. A reasonable interpretation of the fairly weak findings at this point is that local government in all European countries has a strong political foundation. Despite system differences and NPM reforms, European councillors appear to be strongly attached to their traditional representative role.

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“…It is quite likely that the trust of political representatives is affected by the same factors as citizens’ trust. Social sciences have put a lot of effort into studying citizens’ political trust in institutions in all tiers of government (e.g., Denters ; Norén Bretzer ; Berg ; Aars & Christensen ; Kestilä‐Kekkonen & Söderlund ), and when citizens evaluate political institutions, it is often found that legitimacy based on procedures and performance is central to the generation of trust (e.g., Gustavsen et al ; Roos & Lidström ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter‐level Trust in a Multilevel Political System

Karlsson

2017

Scand Pol Stud

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The aim of this article is to study political representatives in a multilevel government system and their level of political trust in relation to institutions in their own and other tiers of government. The results show that two factors are essential for understanding variations in their trust: Representatives tend to trust institutions in other tiers less than those in their own tier (the tier‐association effect), and they trust institutions more where their own party is in a governing position (the home‐team effect). Of the two, the home‐team effect is by far the most dominant factor. Multiple mandates serve to increase inter‐level trust, but divided loyalties possibly make representatives with multiple mandates less trusting towards political institutions in their own tiers than more partisan single mandate representatives. The study builds on data from surveys conducted among all elected representatives in Sweden in 2012 (local and regional councillors) and 2014 (national MPs).

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Size and Political Trust: Evidence from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom

Cited by 137 publications

References 18 publications

The roots of trust in local government in western Europe

The roots of trust in local government in western Europe

New Public Management Reforms and Democratic Legitimacy: Notions of Democratic Legitimacy among West European Local Councillors

Inter‐level Trust in a Multilevel Political System

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