Populo - Volume 1, Issue 2

How do Differing Levels of Trust in Political Institutions Affect the Nature of Political Participation?

- PO-3320 – Group Report - Alfie Gatenby, Anastasia Hagerty, Ben Hitchings, Isaac Taylor, Joe Gape, Kevin Anyaka, Tara Gardener, Zuzanna Miernik

Executive Summary

Trust in political institutions is crucial because of the impact institutions have

upon our daily lives and society as a whole. Participation feeds into this by

providing citizens the ability to be active within these institutions which in turn

provides stability and legitimacy to the institutions. The relationship between

trust in political institutions and the nature of political participation is something

which is heavily discussed by scholars, yet there is a lack of consensus around

the connection between the two. This leads us to question:

How do Differing Levels of Trust in Political Institutions Affect the Nature of

Political Participation?

This is an important question to study in order to analyse how political

participation has been used to respond to different levels of trust in political

institutions. It is also vital for predicting what type of participation may occur in

future situations.

The purpose of this report is to investigate how different levels of trust following

certain events cause varying forms of participation. Furthering to question and

suggest why this may be the case. We do this by firstly exploring and utilising the

literature, to analyse what trust and participation are, and what the relationship

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