Just because they are not politicians? Examining trust in citizens as decision-makers

There is widespread talk of democracy being under pressure: Many citizens today think of politicians as dishonest, short-sighted individuals who do not care about what is best for society as a whole (e.g., Citrin and Stoker, 2018). In efforts to revitalize democracy, academics and practitioners seem optimistic about the potential of involving citizens in political decision-making (e.g., Elstub and Escobar, 2019; OECD, 2020). Indeed, there are indications that the general public has more trust in fellow citizens to make good political decisions than in politicians - despite having much less information about who these citizens are, how they behave, and what their concerns and viewpoints are (e.g., Pow et al., 2020). It is, as of yet, unclear why this is the case. Using a conjoint experiment (n 2000; fielded in Spring 2023), this paper aims to uncover if people’s trust in citizens is driven simply by them not being a politician for a living. It measures trust in politicians vs. ‘ordinary’ citizens as decision-makers – both in a context of limited information (only a label) as well as when providing what they stand for (party affiliation) or how they behave (allegations of corruption). This allows, for instance, to see if people have more trust in a citizen that is from a different party than in a politician from one’s preferred party. If so, this could have far-reaching implications for the quality of representation, the role of elections, and democracy as rule by the people.