(2021, p.8). Similarly, Linssen et al argue conventional political participation can
be considered legal as it is embedded in the political system, “which determines
legal conditions” (2015, p.54). Therefore, we propose this model, seen in (Figure
1), which utilises the binary of legal or illegal and the spectrum of
institutionalised and non institutionalised to construct a spectrum of
conventionality. Utilising this will allow us to explore our hypothesis.
Figure 1: Proposed Framework
4). Trust in Institutions and Participation
4.1). Why might we have a lack of trust in institutions?
As highlighted in section 2, trust from citizens towards political institutions
fundamentally stems from whether they are “well-functioning” (Clark & Lee,
2001, p.19). From this, it can be suggested that citizens tend to trust these
institutions when they feel they can effectively participate in the creation of
policy and influence “decision making” by their government (He & Ma, 2021,
p.472). When the public feel that this mechanism is “working well”, they are
likely to trust their political institutions (Whiteley et al, 2016, p.250). Based upon
this, trust in political institutions can be suggested to decrease when citizens do
not feel they are an active part of decision making. When we feel
underrepresented by our institutions, the likelihood that we lose trust in our
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