Trust and Elections

© Oxford University Press 2018. Political trust is closely related to various forms of electoral behavior. First, political trust tends to stimulate voter turnout, as distrusting citizens are less motivated to cast a vote. Second, low levels of political trust have been associated with an anti-incumbent vote and with populist voting. Third, taking part in elections can actually boost levels of political trust, although it is debatable whether this effect is limited to supporters of the winning party in elections. The occurrence of this winner-loser gap, however, seems to depend strongly on specific characteristics of electoral and party systems. Across liberal democracies, processes of electoral dealignment have led to lower levels of voter turnout and a higher vote share for populist parties. To a large extent, it remains to be investigated what causal role political trust plays in these processes.status: publishe