Institutional Trust or Trusting Institutions: It’s the Partisanship, Stupid

• In Event: Assessing Mechanisms Explaining Trust in Government

Abstract

It is by now well known that trust in US institution has been declining. Less, however, is known about the determinants of this confidence deficit, the degree to which these opinions are real and strongly held, and whether they are tied to a decrease in support for democracy in general. Using a new, large, nationally representative survey that asks respondents not only their level of confidence in 13 key American institutions, but also to explain these answers in open ended responses, we tackle these questions. We find that confidence in institutions is largely based on the perceived partisanship of the institution and the partisanship of the respondent. In addition, we report on the result of a novel experiment, using the open-ended answers as outcomes, to test the extent that respondents' expressed opinions about institutions are malleable to very simple primes based on economics or race. Finally, we examine the degree to which a lack of confidence in institutions is associated with negative opinions toward democracy or democratic norms.

Authors

• Sean Kates, New York University

• Jonathan M. Ladd, Georgetown University

• Joshua A. Tucker, New York University