Renewing Democracy: Political Trust and Political Institutions

Abstract

In the past decades political institutions, even in mature democracies, are suffering from declining levels of political trust. Citizens feel disconnected, disempowered and disenfranchised on many occasions within representative democracies. Inability to handle misinformation or fake news, and failure to understand their impact on deliberative processes and participatory spaces, can lead citizens to turn to unelected political agents or be captured by the populist zeitgeist. Trustworthiness and reliability become crucial in the relationship between citizens and the state within a representative democracy and help safeguard it from backsliding and erosion. Hosted by the editors of the European Political Science Review, this roundtable explores the relationship between trust and political institutions within a democratic framework and discusses the way citizens can renew their trust in democracy.