Exploring the Relationship between Trust in Government and Citizen Participation

ABSTRACT

Theories of deliberative and stealth democracy offer different predictions on the relationship between trust in government and citizen participation. To help resolve the contradictory predictions, this study used the World Values Survey to examine the influence of trust in government on citizen participation. Regression analyses yielded mixed results. As deliberative democracy theory predicts, the findings showed that people who trust governmental institutions are more likely to vote and sign a petition. However, the data provided limited support for stealth democracy in that trust in government negatively affects the frequency of attending a demonstration.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizen participation
• trust in government
• stealth democracy
• deliberative democracy

Notes

¹ Detailed information for the World Values Survey is available at www.worldvaluessurvey.org.

² The descriptive information of samples is available from the authors upon request.