5.1). Measuring trust
In order to determine the level of institutional trust in our cases, and to
ultimately determine if our hypothesis is correct, trust will be measured in a case
specific way. Therefore, to measure the levels of trust in institutions this report
will use both quantitative data and qualitative data depending on the context
and the need for specific data. The report will analyse four case studies to
compare the effects that low trust has on types of political participation. In the
first case study of Watergate, because the form of participation following this
was conventional it was fairly straightforward to obtain multiple polls taken
around the time of the scandal to provide evidence of a lack of trust. Extremely
useful polls that directly assessed people’s reaction to the Watergate scandal can
be found and clearly show that confidence in federal government dropped
significantly as a result (McLeod, 1977, p.181). Secondly, in the Iraq War case
study in the same way that polls help us understand the lack of trust following
Watergate, Statista polls show the clear lack of trust in Tony Blair’s decision and
further decline in trust proceeded when facts of the case were exposed. Thirdly,
the sit-ins were not as easily analysed because, the group that were participating
in this instance were a minority and were additionally not given the opportunity
to contribute to mass statistics. Therefore, to measure the lack of trust this
report uses the vast literature surrounding the civil rights movement to
characterise the feeling of disenfranchisement African-American people felt at
this time in American history. Lastly, similar to the previous case, the storming of
the Capitol involved a small minority of people but in this case a small majority
of extreme Donald Trump supporters. Following the 2020 US Presidential
election polls were taken to assess Americans’ levels of trust in institutions which
showed that Trump supporters had the least amount of trust in institutions
(Boon, 2020).
60
Made with FlippingBook HTML5