How the Administrative State Shapes Citizens’ Trust in Democracy

• In Event: The Institutions and Civic Virtues That Support Democracy

Abstract

Citizens’ trust in democratic institutions is affected by a multitude of factors, including the state of the economy, media reporting, and the behavior of political leaders. The role of public bureaucratic institutions, however, remains largely underexplored in the relevant literature. Therefore, this project seeks to answer the following question: How do citizens’ interactions with the administrative state affect their attitudes toward democracy? I argue that the reliability/reputation of public administrative institutions and the quality of public services are important factors that influence citizens’ trust in the existing system of government. Accordingly, democracies with unreliable administrative institutions and public services of low quality are at risk of losing legitimacy in the eyes of the public. In order to test my theory and to examine possible cross-sectional variation in the impact of public bureaucracies on citizen attitudes, I conduct surveys across three major European countries.

Author

• Jan P. Vogler, University of Konstanz