Undermining or defending democracy? The consequences of distrust for democratic attitudes and participation

Abstract

We can observe a well-documented decline of trust levels in Western societies: from the reputation of political representatives as being 'not trustworthy' to the rise of anti-system-oriented populist parties. Yet the implications of different forms of distrust for a society and democratic institutions have been theorized in conflicting ways so far. In order to illuminate existing inconsistencies in social and democratic theory, this article addresses two research questions: What are the implications of different manifestations of distrust for the acceptance of democracy and democratic institutions? How do different forms of distrust affect the motivation to become engaged in democratic decision-making and in civil society institutions? Taking empirical evidence from 25 focus groups in Germany, our findings show that growing social divisions affect the role distrust plays for political interest representation of social groups and for the acceptance of liberal representative democracy.

Political distrust and the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria

“…Over the decades, political scientists and psychologists have emphasised conceptualisation of political trust at the expense of political distrust. Thus, literature focuses on theorising political trust and largely considered political distrust as the lack of political trust (Butzlaff & Messinger-Zimmer, 2019). Meanwhile, Bertsou (2019, p. 214) argued that 'treating trust and distrust as equivalent and conflating distrust with the lack of trust is inaccurate and problematic, both conceptually and empirically'.…”

Dispositions of dis/trust: Fourth-wave mobile communication for a world in flux

“…Globally, societies appear to be facing crises of distrust—crises not limited to mobile communication, but within which mobile communication is deeply embedded. Even as the world is ever-increasingly connected, global information and cultural landscapes are characterized by ever higher degrees of distrust—not just toward traditional institutions like liberal democracy (Butzlaff and Messinger-Zimmer, 2020), but also toward the possibility that people from different social positions can collaborate to create common and equitable futures. Today, exacerbated by the uncertainties of the COVID pandemic and fueled by social media, many societies are witnessing an increase in xenophobia (Ahmed et al, 2021), the spread of misinformation (Su, 2021), and a preference for conspiracy over expert authority (Bessi et al, 2015).…”

Identität, Populismus und direkte Demokratie. Zum Einfluss der nationalen Identität auf das Verhältnis von rechtspopulistischen Einstellungen und der Präferenz für direktdemokratische Entscheidungsverfahren

“…Die in der Literatur als "Krise der liberalen Demokratie" (Zaslove et al 2020) bezeichnete Entwicklung von sinkendem politischen Vertrauen und Unzufriedenheit mit der repräsentativen Demokratie sowie dem Ruf nach direkter Demokratie wird gegenwärtig besonders mit rechtspopulistischen Parteien 2 in Verbindung gebracht (Schüttemeyer 2020;Butzlaff und Messinger-Zimmer 2019;Dalton et al 2001;Taggart 2002). Dennoch sind Debatten über Defizite der repräsentativen Form von Demokratie und Forderungen nach Reformen sowie einer Öffnung für mehr Partizipationsmöglichkeiten durch direktdemokratische Elemente keineswegs neu und kein exklusives Thema populistischer Parteien (Dalton et al 2001;Bürklin et al 2001;Dzur und Hendriks 2018;Landwehr und Harms 2020;Rojon 2020).…”