1). Introduction
Trust is essential in a democratic regime. Trust represents an evaluation of a
relationship between a subject, the one who trusts, and an object, the one who
is trusted (Meer, Hakhverdian, 2017, p.82). It is essential because trust influences
citizens' active or passive participation in political life (Rothstein,2011). We can
distinguish between trust in government and trust in political institutions.
Institutional trust indicates how citizens assess the work of the actual institution
of government. Their accountability and effectiveness have an influence on
levels of trust in political institutions. If these institutions function well and the
level of trust is high, citizens feel that they are actively involved in decision-
making and that they have an influence on the policies of their state. Citizens
losing trust in the political institution often show their dissatisfaction by
participating in conventional and unconventional forms of participation.
Conventional forms of participation are considered to be voting in an election or
supporting a political campaign, whereas attending a protest or going on strike
would constitute unconventional participation. Often a lack of trust in political
institutions results in greater unconventional forms of participation. Also,
participation is changing with an increase in unconventional forms of with
factors such as group solidarity and affiliation influencing this. In addition, since
1960, scholars have noted a decline in trust in political institutions, therefore it
is crucial to monitor and study political participation. Additionally
unconventional participation is of interest as it is a more problematic form of
opposition to the system and demands more study.
As mentioned above, this report addresses the question regarding levels of trust
in political institutions and the nature of political participation:
• How does trust in political institutions affect the nature of participation?
46
Made with FlippingBook HTML5