Not Just about Performance: The Racial Antecedents of Whites’ Public Mistrust

• In Event: Race and Political Representation

Abstract

What is the relationship between racial predispositions and whites’ attitudes towards government? Early research suggested that racial prejudice and fears that civil rights laws would spell negative change in the social status of whites contributed to mistrust of government and its institutions among white-Americans (Aberbach and Walker 1970). However, neither the voluminous literature on the determinants of public trust, nor the even larger scholarship on the role of racial prejudice in whites’ policy preferences has followed up. As we show, using ANES data from 1972-2016, neither camp has paid attention to the fact that white Americans’ low confidence in their government has become coupled not only with an increase in support for small government ideology but also outright hostility to government and that racial predispositions go a long way in explaining such beliefs about the American government.

Authors

• Alexandra Filindra, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Noah J. Kaplan, University of Illinois, Chicago