The Relationship between Democratic Innovations and Trust: An Empirical Assessment of Participants' Perceptions

The decline in trust in representative institutions is considered one of the most important political problems of our time. Democratic innovations are usually expected to meet some of these malaises. However, critics question that democratic innovations produces sought after effects on perceived legitimacy. By drawing on a survey among 1700 responding e-petitioning participants in Swedish local government, this study aims at empirically assess these claims. First, we ask whether democratic innovations engage satisfied or dissatisfied democrats. Second, we ask whether the participants´ perceived trust in local government is affected by their participation. The results show that this democratic innovation succeeds in engaging both satisfied and dissatisfied democrats, even though both groups are rather critical towards the implementation of the procedure. Furthermore, changes in perceived trust take different paths. While the trend among satisfied democrats is positive, the trust among dissatisfied democrats is decreasing.