Citizens' perceptions of the political system are contaminated by their image of political actors and processes and their partisan loyalties (Hibbing & Theiss-Morse 1995). Consequently, the temporary fluctuations in political trust are often due to demands for accountability of decision-makers, policy responsiveness and occasional political scandals. In the long run, however, the lack of short-term political trust may affect both the legitimacy and stability of democratic regimes, prevent effective implementation of policy reforms or even increase willingness of citizens to engage in illegal behavior. This paper evaluates the development of political trust in Finland in the past ten years. The particular interest lies in the co-variation of short- and long-term trends. In the empirical part, data from the European Social Survey 2002-2013 are analyzed by multivariate methods.
