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The Political Relevance of Political Trust
Abstract
Scholars have debated the importance of declining political trust to the American political system. By primarily treating trust as a dependent variable, however, scholars have systematically underestimated its relevance. This study establishes the importance of trust by demonstrating that it is simultaneously related to measures of both specific and diffuse support. In fact, trust's effect on feelings about the incumbent president, a measure of specific support, is even stronger than the reverse. This provides a fundamentally different understanding of the importance of declining political trust in recent years. Rather than simply a reflection of dissatisfaction with political leaders, declining trust is a powerful cause of this dissatisfaction. Low trust helps create a political environment in which it is more difficult for leaders to succeed.
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Citations
Cited by
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Bauhr, M., & Grimes, M. (2014) · Governance · doi:10.1111/gove.12033 · Cited by 524
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Grimmelikhuijsen, S., & Knies, E. (2017) · International Review of Administrative Sciences · doi:10.1177/0020852315585950 · Cited by 366
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Im, T., Cho, W., Porumbescu, G., & Park, J. (2014) · Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory · doi:10.1093/jopart/mus037 · Cited by 245
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Grimes, M. (2006) · European Journal of Political Research · doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00299.x · Cited by 224
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Jones, D. A. (2004) · Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1081180x04263461 · Cited by 189
National Identity and Political Trust
Berg, L., & Hjerm, M. (2010) · Perspectives on European Politics and Society · doi:10.1080/15705854.2010.524403 · Cited by 158
The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Trust in Government
Nicholls, K., & Picou, J. S. (2013) · Social Science Quarterly · doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00932.x · Cited by 84
Online media and trust in government during crisis: The moderating role of sense of security
Zhu, Z., Liu, Y., Kapucu, N., & Peng, Z. (2020) · International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101717 · Cited by 42
Porumbescu, G. (2017) · International Public Management Journal · doi:10.1080/10967494.2016.1269859 · Cited by 37
Zhan, E. S., Zheng, Q., Dong, C., & Thorson, E. (2025) · International Journal of Strategic Communication · doi:10.1080/1553118x.2025.2471527 · Cited by 22
Metadata
- Authors
- Hetherington, M. J.
- Venue
- American Political Science Review
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1998-12
- Volume
- 92
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 791-808
- ISSN
- 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5943
- OpenAlex
- W2132841365
- Cited by
- 1,539
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 39.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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