Political Trust in European Democracies

Abstract

This panel comprises the first findings of the 2023-2025 "TRUEDEM: Trust in European Democracies" research project funded by the Horizon program of the European Commission. The project aims to develop a comprehensive and transparent toolbox of short-term and long-term policy interventions including recommendations, and methodologies for enhancing trust in political institutions, boosting transparency, and inclusiveness of representative systems in Europe. Political trust has long been regarded as an important element of regime support and factor of regime stability; it is widely associated with a number of positive outcomes in representative democracies. Political trust drives citizens’ interest and engagement in politics, increases voting turnout and makes law-abiding behavior more common. Political trust is frequently equated to diffuse regime support and thus linked to the effective functioning and stability of the political system. Recognizing the importance of political trust and its growth as a desired outcome and mean to strengthen the European democracies, one should not discard the "dark sides" of trust and their negative implications. To address the multi-facet nature of political trust, TRUEDEM looks at the different drivers of 'positive high trust in democracy' and 'negative high trust in autocracy' thus contributing to the development of a new paradigm of political trust and trust-building based on the multi-factor nature of trustworthiness. The project monitors the structural (long-term) drivers of political trust and explores the strategies which can be employed by diverse actors and agencies to strengthen accurate and informed judgments of agency trustworthiness. While there is a growing concern about the crisis of democracy and democratic backsliding, this research effort will provide an innovative theoretical perspective on the sources of regime support and strategies for trust building in the public domain.

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