A Tale of Two Populisms: Divergent and Convergent Correlates of Trust in Congress and Corporations

• In Event: 2329 - Section on the Sociology of Religion Referred Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 8. Religion, Politics, and Civic Engagement

Abstract

The political landscape prior to the 2016 US presidential election provides new opportunities for social scientists trying to understand phenomena related to populism and institutional trust. Specifically, the relative popularity of candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump signaled the simultaneous emergence of economic populism from the political left and political populism from the political right. Adding to the complexity was a non-trivial minority who supported Sanders during the Democratic primaries and Trump during the general election. Given these historical peculiarities, here we try to understand patterns of public trust in Congress and corporations, two important institutions related to populism, just prior to the start of the campaigns. With data from a large cross-sectional survey collected in 2013-2014, we tested hypotheses that relating to both the divergence and convergence of trust in political and economic power establishments. While political ideology largely explained trust in corporations, social location in terms of gender and racial-ethnic status strongly related to trust in Congress. Further, seemingly opposing factors including political progressivism, evangelical religious identity, white racial status, and being a man converged to predict lack of trust in both institutions. Results have implications for new understandings of the meaning and predictors of institutional trust.

Authors

• Robert A. Thomson, Rice University

• Daniel Bolger, Rice University

• Elaine Howard Ecklund, Rice University