In other words, the act of trusting is putting oneself in a position of depending
on something happening or someone doing something (Faulkner, 2018, p.3).
Faulkner uses the analogy of delaying your departure because of the trust you
have in your car to start and waiting around in the restaurant is trust that your
friend will arrive on time to meet you (2018, p.3). In the political realm however,
trust can be described as:
This description of trust in the political domain neatly ties the general definition
The general willingness among citizens to comply more or less voluntarily with democratically determined legislation (Lenard, 2005, p.353).
of trust into a political context because citizens trust that those democratically
elected have passed legislation that will benefit them and therefore, willingly
abide by it.
Miller offers a definition of ‘trust in government’ to be the opposite of political
cynicism in which political trust can be thought of as a basic evaluative
orientation toward the government (1974, p.952). In support of this, Norris
claims that a more critical outlook of citizens towards the political system should
not be regarded as a symptom of disenfranchisement from the political system
(1999, p.2-13). These definitions are making the point that trust is not simply
placing faith in something because it stands in a position of authority but in fact
democracy requires an active citizenry with a healthy scepticism of government
(Mishler & Rose, 1997, p.419). Other scholars perceive trust in government as
proxy for approval rating or even political legitimacy (Kavanagh et al, 2020, p.6).
However, these definitions of trust are fixated around political actors or specific
governments that should be held to account by a vigilant and sceptical citizenry.
The type of trust this report is focussing on is the trust in political institutions.
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