Relative Trust and Public Preferences for Territorial Scales

Relative trust - the difference in trust between national and regional government - is a key factor in shaping public preferences for governance within a federal system. While prior research often focuses on absolute measures of trust, primarily at the national level, or examines a limited set of policy areas, this study explores how relative trust shapes preferences for national, regional, or shared governance across four domains: environmental protection, healthcare, education, and agriculture. Using multinomial logistic regression and survey data from Germany (N=3693) and Switzerland (N=2143), I find that greater relative trust in national government corresponds with a preference for national governance across most policy areas, while greater relative trust in regional government drives support for regional authority specifically in agriculture. In other domains, shared governance is the predominant preference, indicating a general support for shared governance. Factors such as ideological orientation, regional attachment, and education level also influence these preferences. By examining a three-tiered governance structure - national, shared, and regional authority - this study underscores the role of relative trust in shaping public attitudes toward centralization and decentralization. These findings offer insights into how federal systems can respond to public demands for tailored governance across policy areas.