Do leopards ever change their spots? The development of political trust among Swedish Green Party sympathisers

• Although starting out as a protest movement in the early 1980s, the Swedish Greens moved to become a contractual supporter of Social Democratic governments from 1998 to 2006, and then became an active partner of the Red–Green Coalition seeking parliamentary power in the 2010 general elections. Against the background of lingering strife between ‘fundis’ and ‘realos’ in Green parties, national survey data is used to analyse how this shift from anti- to pro-system party has affected political trust among Swedish Green sympathisers. Although the general level of political trust among Green sympathisers goes up during the period of ever closer cooperation with the Social Democrats, the effect of being a Green Party sympathiser remains negatively associated with political trust regardless of proximity to power. Possible explanations of this pattern, which seems exclusively attached to former anti-parties, are discussed.

Ämnesord

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

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

Nyckelord

political trust

green parties

Sweden

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)