https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8267-1956
![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
What explains institutional trust in democratic institutions in Mongolia? Institutional trust facilitates establishing democratic institutions in post-transition countries and has been accounted for by institutional performance and social capital approaches in previous research. We argue that particularly in post-transition systems, partisanship, the evaluation of corruption and the quality of democracy also impacts institutional trust. To contribute to the study of political culture in Mongolia, the only Asian post-communist country to have developed towards democracy, we investigate determinants of citizens’ trust in the president, parliament, and judiciary. To test the various explanatory factors of trust, we run ordered logit models using Asian Barometer data from 2014. The results suggest that, apart from institutional and social capital factors, partisanship strongly influences trust in the president and courts. This implies that Mongolians’ perceptions of the justice system are informed by political preference, which partially originates in attempts to seize courts’ autonomy.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Ugur Ozdemir, Choijantsan Bayarkhuu, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous version of the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Marc S. Jacob http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8267-1956
Greta Schenke http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6919-370X
Notes
1 Munkh-Erdene, “The Transformation of Mongolia’s Political System”.
2 Radchenko and Jargalsaikhan, “Mongolia in the 2016–17 Electoral Cycle”.
3 Sambuu and Menarndt, “Here’s How Democracy is Eroding in Mongolia”.
4 Ganbat, Tusalem and Yang, “The Mass Public and Democratic Politics in Mongolia”.
5 Merkel, “The Consolidation of Post-autocratic Democracies”.
6 Fish, “The Inner Asian anomaly”.
7 Fritz, “Mongolia”.
8 Fritz, “Democratisation and Corruption in Mongolia”.
9 Ganbat, Tusalem and Yang, “The Mass Public and Democratic Politics in Mongolia”.
10 Sumaadi, “Mongolian Values And Attitudes Toward Democracy”; Fish and Seeberg, “The Secret Supports of Mongolian Democracy”; Finch, “Civil Society in Mongolia’s Development and Governance”.
11 Hakhverdian and Mayne, “Institutional Trust, Education, and Corruption”.
12 Munkh-Erdene, “The Transformation of Mongolia’s Political System”.
13 Letki, “Investigating the Roots of Civic Morality”; van der Meer, “Economic Performance and Political Trust”.
14 Putnam, Making Democracy Work; Putnam, “Bowling Alone”.
15 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?”.
16 Easton, “An Approach to the Analysis of Political Systems”.
17 Ibid., 384.
18 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?,” 36.
19 Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy.
20 Letki, “Investigating the Roots of Civic Morality,” 309; Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?”.
21 Putnam, Making Democracy Work.
22 Ibid., 167.
23 La Due Lake and Huckfeldt, “Social Capital, Social Networks, and Political Participation”.
24 Zmerli, Newton and Montero, “Trust in People, Confidence in Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy,” 58, 61.
25 Byambajav, “International NGOs in Mongolia”.
26 Dalaibuyan Byambajav, “Formal and Informal Networks in Post-socialist Mongolia”.
27 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?,” 31.
28 Letki, “Investigating the Roots of Civic Morality,” 307.
29 Scholz and Lubell, “Trust and Taxpaying”; Russell Hardin, “Trust in Government,” 11.
30 Letki, “Investigating the Roots of Civic Morality,” 307; Levi, Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism, 24.
31 Kenneth Newton, “Social and Political Trust in Established Democracies,” 185.
32 Ishiyama, Mezvrishvili and Zhgenti, “An Oasis of Democracy in an Authoritarian Sea?,” 26.
33 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?”; Stoyan et al., “Trust in Government Institutions”.
34 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?,” 33.
35 Sapsford and Abbott, “Trust, Confidence and Social Environment in Post-communist Societies”.
36 Stoyan et al., “Trust in Government Institutions”; Kotzian, “Conditional Trust”; Banducci and Karp, “How Elections Change the Way Citizens View the Political System”.
37 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?”; Ganbat, Tusalem and Yang, “The Mass Public and Democratic Politics in Mongolia”; Habibov, Afandi and Cheung, “Sand or Grease?”; Hakhverdian and Mayne, “Institutional Trust, Education, and Corruption”.
38 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?,” 36.
39 Godefroidt, Langer and Meuleman, “Developing Political Trust in a Developing Country”.
40 Ibid.
41 Ganbat, Tusalem and Yang, “The Mass Public and Democratic Politics in Mongolia”.
42 Fish, “The Inner Asian Anomaly,” 330.
43 Fritz, “Mongolia,” 785.
44 Fish, “The Inner Asian Anomaly,” 335.
45 Aagaard Seeberg, “Democratization in Clan-based Societies”.
46 Ganbat, Tusalem and Yang, “The Mass Public and Democratic Politics in Mongolia,” 153.
47 Ibid., 141; Fritz, “Democratisation and Corruption in Mongolia,” 192; Munkh-Erdene, “The Transformation of Mongolia’s Political System”.
48 Elgie, “The Perils of Semi-Presidentialism”.
49 Maškarinec, “The 2016 Electoral Reform in Mongolia”.
50 Stoyan et al., “Trust in Government Institutions,” 31.
51 Ginsburg and Ganzorig, “When Courts and Politics Collide,” 93.
52 A list of all items used in the analysis can be found in the online supplemental material.
53 Godefroidt, Langer and Meuleman, “Developing Political Trust in a Developing Country”.
54 Prohl, Voter’s Voices, 117.
55 Godefroidt, Langer and Meuleman, “Developing Political Trust in a Developing Country”; Lühiste, “Explaining Trust in Political Institutions”.
56 Mishler and Rose, “What are the Origins of Political Trust?”; Stoyan et al., “Trust in Government Institutions”; Godefroidt, Langer and Meuleman, “Developing Political Trust in a Developing Country”.
57 Cf. Stoyan et al., “Trust in Government Institutions”.
58 Listhaug and Jakobsen, “Foundations of Political Trust,” 561–2; Banducci and Karp, “How Elections Change the Way Citizens View the Political System”.
59 Radchenko and Jargalsaikhan, “Mongolia in the 2016–17 Electoral Cycle”.
60 Bonilla and Shagdar, “Electoral Gifting and Personal Politics in Mongolia’s Parliamentary Election Season”.
61 Chang, “Why do They Vote Out of Habit?”.
62 Rich, “Losers’ Consent or Non-Voter Consent?”.
63 Ishiyama and Ishiyama, “Judicious Choices”; Bradford, Jackson and Hough, “Trust in Justice”.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marc S. Jacob
Marc S. Jacob is a graduate student in political science at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and previously at the University of Edinburgh, UK. In his research he focuses on voting behavior, party finance, and electoral reform.
Greta Schenke
Greta Schenke is a graduate student in political science at University College London, UK. Her research interests include institutional trust and reforms of parliamentary institutions.