Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T03:01:57.531Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The role of political trust in conditioning perceptions of corruption

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2012

Andrew Wroe ,
Nicholas Allen  and
Sarah Birch
Andrew Wroe*
Affiliation:
School of Politics and IR, Rutherford College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK
Nicholas Allen
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and IR, Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey, UK
Sarah Birch
Affiliation:
Department of Government, University of Essex, Essex, UK
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Political trust and corruption have both elicited considerable academic and popular commentary in recent years. Much attention has been focused on the extent to which corruption has contributed to citizens’ increasing distrust of their politicians. But little attention has been paid to the possibility that distrust may condition responses to alleged corruption, and no work has hitherto demonstrated the veracity of this relationship in a mature democracy. Drawing on data from the United Kingdom, this paper finds that less trusting individuals are consistently more censorious of politicians’ misbehaviour and more likely to perceive the presence of corruption than are their more trusting peers. The paper further demonstrates that people who are less trusting become relatively more critical (compared with the more trusting) as the generally perceived corruptness of a certain scenario declines. It also demonstrates how trust increases in importance as a predictor of ethical judgements when behaviour is generally reckoned to be less corrupt. Further analysis suggests that this effect is partly connected to uncertainty. Less obviously corrupt acts are associated with higher levels of uncertainty, which appears to open up a space for trust to play an even more significant role in shaping individual's judgements of politicians’ behaviour.

Keywords

trustcorruptionscandaluncertaintyendogeneity
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 175 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adut, A. (2008), On Scandal: Moral Disturbances in Society, Politics, and Art, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, N.Birch, S. (2011), ‘Political conduct and misconduct: probing public opinion’, Parliamentary Affairs 64(1): 61–68.Google Scholar
Allen, N.Birch, S. (2012), ‘On either side of a moat? Elite and mass attitudes towards right and wrong’, European Journal of Political Research 51(1): 89–116.Google Scholar
Anechiarico, F.Jacobs, J.B. (1996), The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity: How Corruption Control Makes Government Ineffective, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, C.J.Tverdova, Y.V. (2003), ‘Corruption, political allegiances, and attitudes toward government in contemporary democracies’, American Journal of Political Science 47(1): 91–109.Google Scholar
Angrist, J.D.Krueger, A.B. (2001), ‘Instrumental variables and the search for identification: from supply and demand to natural experiments’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 15(1): 69–85.Google Scholar
Axelrod, R. (1973), ‘Schema theory: an information processing model of perception and cognition’, American Political Science Review 67(4): 1248–1266.Google Scholar
Barnett, S. (2002), ‘Will a crisis in journalism provoke a crisis in democracy?’, The Political Quarterly 73(4): 401–408.Google Scholar
Birch, S.Allen, N. (2010), ‘How honest do politicians need to be?’, The Political Quarterly 81(1): 49–56.Google Scholar
Bowler, S.Karp, J.A. (2004), ‘Politicians, scandals, and trust in government’, Political Behavior 26(3): 271–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromley, C., Curtice, J.Seyd, B. (2001), ‘Still sceptical? Trust in government and constitutional reform’, in A. Park, J. Curtice, K. Thomson, L. Jarvis and C. Bromley (eds), British Social Attitudes: the 18th Report, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Chang, E.C.C.Chu, Y. (2006), ‘Corruption and trust: exceptionalism in Asian democracies?’, Journal of Politics 68(2): 259–271.Google Scholar
Chanley, V.A., Rudolph, T.J.Rahn, W.M. (2000), ‘The origins and consequences of public trust in government: a times series analysis’, Public Opinion Quarterly 64(3): 239–256.Google Scholar
Chanley, V.A., Rudolph, T.J.Rahn, W.M. (2001), ‘Public trust in government in the Reagan years and beyond’, in J.R. Hibbing and E. Theiss-Morse (eds), What is it About Government that Americans Dislike?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Citrin, J. (1974), ‘The political relevance of trust in government’, American Political Science Review 68(3): 973–988.Google Scholar
Citrin, J.Green, D.P. (1986), ‘Presidential leadership and the resurgence of trust in government’, British Journal of Political Science 16(4): 431–453.Google Scholar
Curtice, J.Jowell, R. (1997), ‘The sceptical electorate’, in R. Jowell et al. (eds), British Social Attitudes: The 12th Report, Aldershot: Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Dalton, R.J. (2004), Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J.E. (1985), The Logic of Causal Order, Newbury Park, CA, USA: Sage.Google Scholar
della Porta, D. (2000), ‘Social capital, beliefs in government, and political corruption’, in S.J. Pharr and R.D. Putnam (eds), Disaffected Democracies: What's Troubling the Trilateral Countries?, Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Easton, D. (1965), A Systems Analysis of Political Life, New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Graham, J., O'Connor, W., Curtice, J., Park, A. (2003), ‘Guiding principles: public attitudes towards conflict in public life’. Report Prepared for the Committee on Standards in Public Life by National Centre for Social Research.Google Scholar
Hardin, W. (1999), ‘Do we want trust in government?’, in M.E. Warren (ed.), Democracy and Trust, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heath, O. (2011), ‘The great divide: voters, parties, MPs and expenses’, in N. Allen and J. Bartle (eds), Britain at the Polls 2010, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Hetherington, M.J. (1998), ‘The political relevance of political trust’, American Political Science Review 92(2): 791–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, M.J. (1999), ‘The effect of political trust on the presidential vote’, American Political Science Review 93(2): 311–326.Google Scholar
Hetherington, M. (2004), Why Trust Matters: Declining Political Trust and the Demise of American Liberalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hetherington, M.J.Globetti, S. (2002), ‘Political trust and racial policy preferences’, American Journal of Political Science 46(2): 253–275.Google Scholar
Heywood, P. (1997), ‘Political corruption: problems and perspectives’, Political Studies 45(3): 417–435.Google Scholar
Hibbing, J.R.Theiss-Morse, E. (2001), What is it About Government that Americans Dislike?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, S.P. (1968), Political Order in Changing Societies, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
King, A. (1986), ‘Sex, Money, and Power’, in R. Hodder-Williams and J. Caeser (eds), Politics in Britain and United States: Comparative Perspectives, Durham, NC, USA: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Lenard, P.T. (2008), ‘Trust your compatriots, but count your change: the roles of trust, mistrust, and distrust in democracy’, Political Studies 56(2): 312–332.Google Scholar
Levi, M.Stoker, L. (2000), ‘Political trust and trustworthiness’, Annual Review of Political Science 3: 475–507.Google Scholar
Maier, J. (2011), ‘The impact of political scandals on political support: an experimental test of two theories’, International Political Science Review 32(3): 283–302.Google Scholar
Mancuso, M. (1995), The Ethical World of British MPs, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Markus, H. (1977), ‘Self-Schemata and processing information about the self’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 35: 63–78.Google Scholar
Miller, A.H. (1974a), ‘Political issues and trust in government’, The American Political Science Review 68(3): 951–972.Google Scholar
Miller, A.H. (1974b), ‘Rejoinder to comment by Jack Citrin: political discontent of ritualism?’, American Political Science Review 68(3): 989–1001.Google Scholar
Miller, A.H.Borrelli, S.A. (1991), ‘Confidence in government during the 1980s’, American Politics Quarterly 19(2): 147–173.Google Scholar
Morris, S.D.Klesner, J.L. (2010), ‘Corruption and trust: theoretical considerations and evidence from Mexico’, Comparative Political Studies 43(10): 1258–1285.Google Scholar
Mortimore, R. (1995), ‘Public perceptions of sleaze in Britain’, Parliamentary Affairs 48(4): 579–589.Google Scholar
Mortimore, R. (2003), ‘Why politics needs marketing’, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 8(2): 107–121.Google Scholar
Nannestad, P. (2008), ‘What have we learned about generalized trust, if anything?’, Annual Review of Political Science 11: 413–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, P. (ed.) (1999), Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Peters, J.G.Welch, S. (1978a), ‘Politics, corruption and political culture: a view from the state legislature’, American Politics Quarterly 6(3): 345–356.Google Scholar
Peters, J.G.Welch, S. (1978b), ‘Political corruption in America: a search for definitions and a theory, or if political corruption is in the mainstream of American politics why is it not in the mainstream of American politics research?’, American Political Science Review 72(3): 974–984.Google Scholar
Pharr, S.J. (2000), ‘Officials’ misconduct and public distrust: Japan and the trilateral countries’, in S.J. Pharr and R.D. Putnam (eds), Disaffected Democracies: What's Troubling the Trilateral Countries?, Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Philp, M. (1997), ‘Defining political corruption’, Political Studies 45(3): 436–462.Google Scholar
Rudolph, T.J. (2009), ‘Political trust, ideology, and public support for tax cuts’, Public Opinion Quarterly 73(1): 144–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudolph, T.J.Evans, J. (2005), ‘Political trust, ideology, and public support for government spending’, American Journal of Political Science 49(3): 660–671.Google Scholar
Scholz, J.T.Lubell, M. (1998), ‘Trust and taxpaying: testing the heuristic approach to collective action’, American Journal of Political Science 42(2): 398–417.Google Scholar
Sears, D.O.Citrin, J. (1985), Tax Revolt: Something for Nothing in California, Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Seligson, M.A. (2002), ‘The impact of corruption on regime legitimacy: a comparative study of four Latin American countries’, Journal of Politics 64(2): 408–433.Google Scholar
Thompson, J.B. (2000), Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Treisman, D. (2007), ‘What have we learned about the causes of corruption from ten years of cross-national empirical research?’, Annual Review of Political Science 10: 211–244.Google Scholar
Tversky, A.Kahneman, D. (1974), ‘Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases’, Science 185(4157): 1124–1131.Google Scholar
Uslaner, E.M. (2002), The Moral Foundations of Trust, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Warren, M.E. (2004), ‘What does corruption mean in a democracy?’, American Journal of Political Science 48(2): 328–343.Google Scholar