Confidence in Political Institutions in Canada and the United States: Assessing the Interactive Role of Region and Race

Abstract

This article uses nationally representative sample survey data to assess the confidence of Canadians and Americans in four major state institutions: the police; the civil service; the federal government; and political parties. Long-standing arguments suggest that Canadians are more trusting of government than Americans. Results, however, indicate small national differences, with variations within countries being much more important, especially for regional and racial subgroups within each nation. Consistent with their traditional minority position in Canada, Quebecers stand out as having the least confidence of respondents in either nation. In contrast, and despite their minority position, nonwhites express more confidence in political institutions than do whites in both countries, especially in English Canada. One exception is somewhat lower confidence in the police among nonwhites, particularly in the northern United States. The findings demonstrate the need to go beyond an exclusive focus on national differences when comparing political attitudes and values in Canada and the United States.

Compassionate Conservatives? Evangelicals, Economic Conservatism, and National Identity

“…Buffalo, New York and Hamilton, Ontario were chosen using a “most similar” strategy of comparison (Mahoney ), recognizing important regional variation within each country (Grabb and Curtis ). In the United States, the South shows more anti‐redistributionist attitudes than the North, tied to its particular history of slavery, civil rights backlash, and mistrust of the federal government (Grabb et al ). In Canada, Quebec shows much more pro‐redistributionist attitudes than English Canada, due to its own history of substate nationalism (Béland and Lecours ).…”

Understanding Differences in Political Trust among Canada’s Major Ethno-racial Groups

“…The white non-ethnic group, most of whom self-identified as "English Canadians," expressed slightly higher political trust, but the differences across groups were small. A more recent analysis used the Canadian and American samples of the 2001 World Values Survey to compare ethno-racial attitudes about four political institutions: the federal government, the civil service, political parties, and the police (Grabb et al 2009b). Sample size limitations restricted the ethno-racial comparison to "white" versus "non-white."…”

“…Consequently, disadvantaged minority group members may feel that government should do more to enhance opportunities and remove obstacles to social mobility. The findings for the effects of socioeconomic factors on political trust have been mixed (Soroka et al 2007;Reitz and Banerjee 2017;Grabb et al 2009b). Additional research is necessary to determine whether income and education mediate the relationship between ethno-racial background and trust.…”

“…Religion includes four categories: no religion; Roman Catholic; Protestant (the reference category); non-Christian. Canadian research suggests that, compared to Protestants, Catholics and other denominations have higher political trust (Soroka et al 2007;Stolle et al 2008;Grabb et al 2009b).…”

“…For gender, males are coded 0 and females coded 1. Females tend to display comparatively greater trust (Smith 1997;Grabb et al 2009b). Gender is controlled because gender compositional variations across ethno-racial groups might influence trust differences.…”