Trust Goes Both Ways

• In Event: Ethics, Trust, Forgiveness, and Punishment

Abstract

Declining trust in democratic governments continues to be a topic of scholarly and public interest. The primary focus for theorists, quantitative scholars, and journalists, however, has typically been in one, upward direction: Do people trust their government? There is, however, another reciprocal, downward relationship of trust to consider: Do politicians trust their constituents or ordinary members of the public? Do people feel that their representatives trust them?

I argue that downward trust between politicians and the people is an integral part of understanding trust in a democracy. Building off and responding to work by Mark Warren, Patti Tamara Lenard, Eric Uslaner, Annette Baier, and Vivien Hart, among others, the paper proceeds in three main parts. First, I establish an account of downward trust—what it means for a politician to trust the public and for citizens to feel trusted. Second, I analyze contemporary examples to connect anti-democratic actions and low downward trust. Gerrymandering, vote suppression, or decreasing commitments to accountability practices, for instance, could result from low downward trust. Lastly, I use the theory to constructively critique current measurement and theoretical framing. I explain why measures of generalized trust cannot act as a proxy for downward trust, acknowledge the difficulties of measuring downward trust, and offer alternative options for gauging downward trust. The paper has implications for how people think about trust in democracies and democratic backsliding, institutional theorists who might reimagine systems to recognize securing downward trust as equally important as securing upward trust, and measurers of political trust.

Author

• Stephanie Ahrens, Boston University