Can democratic innovations generate trust? : an e-­petitioning case study

• Declining trust in representative institutions is considered to be one of the most significant political problems of our time. It is often assumed that democratic innovations – or mechanisms that aim to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process - can help reversing this trend. However, skeptics claim that any impact on perceived trust is dubious at best. With survey data representing 1,470 e-petitioning participants in Swedish local government, this study aims to empirically assess the relationship between democratic innovations and trust. First we ask whether e-petitioning primarily engage dissatisfied or already satisfied democrats. This is interesting considering that conventional participation usually is biased towards satisfied democrats, while unconventional participation usually is biased towards dissatisfied democrats. How about democratic innovations? Second we ask to what extent the participants´ perceived trust in local government is affected by their participation. Results show that e-petitioning successfully engages both satisfied and dissatisfied democrats, as well as that political participation affects their trust in local government. However, changes in perceived trust vary according to participants’ predisposition toward government.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Political Science

Statskunskap

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)