1 Political Mistrust Among African Americans and Support for the Political System

Recent research argues that political mistrust among African Americans represents unhappiness with the political sys-tem. To date, however, no study has directly examined the influence of black mistrust on support for the system. In this study I show that greater mistrust among blacks leads to greater support for change in the party and electoral sys-tems. I also find evidence of inter-racial differences in the influence of mistrust on support for the political system. These findings have implications for our understanding of the nature of political trust and add to a growing literature demonstrating the political consequences of mistrust in government