Why People Turn to Institutions They Detest: Institutional Mistrust and Justice System Engagement in Uneven Democratic States

Abstract

Does political mistrust lead to institutional disengagement? Much work in political science holds that trust matters for political participation, including recourse to the justice system. Scholars of judicial institutions, relying largely on survey research, argue that low trust decreases legal compliance and cooperation, threatening the rule of law. Legal consciousness and mobilization scholars, meanwhile, suggest that trust does not drive justice system engagement. However, their single-case study approach makes assessing the wider implications of their findings difficult. Based on an innovative comparative focus-group study in two uneven democratic states, Chile and Colombia, we show that trust is not the primary factor driving justice system engagement. Rather, people’s engagement decisions are shaped by their expectations and aspirations for their political system and by their politically constructed capacities for legal agency. Our study offers insights of relevance for analysts of various forms of political participation in uneven democratic states across the globe.

Colombia 2021: Between Crises and Hope

“…Instead, Colombians have very high knowledge of human rights, and in the face of injustice and rights violations, engage in multiple forms of individual and collective action to demand the restoration of their rights. Engagement with state institutions to demand rights protections does not depend on socioeconomic status, gender, or race, even if women, displaced people, and lower-income Colombians recognize the system as biased in favor of the wealthy (Hilbink et al 2022). This rights consciousness and willingness to engage the system was an important driver for the National Strike resulting from the convergence of the health, socioeconomic, and governability crisis as the following section will show.…”

“…Recent scholarship has shown that a lack of trust in institutions does not drive engagement with political, judicial, and other systems. Rather, citizens' deci-sion to participate in politics and engage with political institutions is driven by their expectations of the state (Kruks-Wisner 2018; Boulding and Holzner 2021;Hilbink et al 2022). This is especially the case in Colombia, where citizens have high levels of consciousness and knowledge of human rights, even among marginalized groups (Gallagher et al 2019;Hilbink et al 2022).…”

“…Rather, citizens' deci-sion to participate in politics and engage with political institutions is driven by their expectations of the state (Kruks-Wisner 2018; Boulding and Holzner 2021;Hilbink et al 2022). This is especially the case in Colombia, where citizens have high levels of consciousness and knowledge of human rights, even among marginalized groups (Gallagher et al 2019;Hilbink et al 2022). A critical element driving the protests is the perception of police brutality as a symptom of a more significant problem.…”

“…Rather than understanding police abuses as incidental, Colombians see them as a more systemic problem. This includes not only police brutality and human rights violations but also unequal access to justice and political institutions, inequality and poverty, lack of opportunities, corruption, inefficacy, and a political system that favors the political and economic elites (Hilbink et al 2022).…”

Citizen awakening? Exploring legal consciousness in a context of mass political mobilization

“…In this article, we offer insights on these matters from an original, nationally representative (telephone) survey conducted at the height of a "broad and allencompassing" sociopolitical mobilization (Ansaldi and Pardo-Vergara 2020) in Chile, a stable democracy in which, aside from elections, political participation was limited, de jure by a rigid constitution that entrenched neoliberalism and established a minimal state and de facto by persistent and severe inequality (Corvalán and Cox 2013;Couso 2011;de la Maza 2014;Posner 2008;UNDP 2014). Chilean citizens were socialized to fend for themselves or to seek help from private sources (Araujo and Martuccelli 2012), and scholars have found that they exhibit limited knowledge and capacities to claim rights (Hilbink et al 2022). Then, in October 2019, mass protests against inequality, discrimination and sociopolitical exclusion erupted across the nation, lasting for several weeks.…”