Direct democracy and institutional trust

• Verfasst von: Freitag, Markus [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Ackermann, Kathrin [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Direct democracy and institutional trust
• Titelzusatz: relationships and differences across personality traits
• Verf.angabe: Markus Freitag, University of Bern, Kathrin Ackermann, University of Bern
• Jahr: 2016
• Jahr des Originals: 2015
• Umfang: 17 S.
• Teil: volume:37
• Teil: year:2016
• Teil: number:5
• Teil: month:10
• Teil: pages:707-723
• Teil: extent:17
• Fussnoten: First published: 01 September 2015 ; Gesehen am 14.04.2021
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Political psychology
• Ort Quelle: Oxford [u.a.] : Wiley-Blackwell, 1979
• Jahr Quelle: 2016
• Band/Heft Quelle: 37(2016), 5 vom: Okt., Seite 707-723
• ISSN Quelle: 1467-9221
• DOI: doi:10.1111/pops.12293
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Big Five
• Sach-SW: direct democracy
• Sach-SW: institutional trust
• Sach-SW: interaction
• Sach-SW: personality
• K10plus-PPN: 1754885799

Abstract

Direct democracy plays a prominent role in the explanation of institutional trust. To date, however, empirical findings on the effects of direct democracy remain inconclusive. In this article, we argue that this inconclusiveness can be partly ascribed to the diverse effects direct democracy has on individuals. In other words, direct democracy influences institutional trust, but how and to what degree depends on individuals’ personality traits. Running hierarchical analyses of unique survey data from a random sample of eligible Swiss voters, we document three findings: First, we show that the number of ballot measures is not directly associated with institutional trust. Second, we demonstrate that the Big Five personality traits affect the propensity to trust. Third, some of these traits also alter the relationship between direct democracy and institutional trust, suggesting that certain personality types are more likely to be sensitive to popular votes than others and that not everyone is equally likely to respond to political stimuli, even in highly democratic environments.