The Importance of Electoral and Judicial Trust For Regime Support

Abstract

What kind of institutions is most essential to be trustworthy in order for a society to function well? To the extent that previous research has addressed the problem, trust in electoral, judicial, public administration and economic institutions have been most frequently mentioned as most important. The problem, however, is worth a more thorough research approach, where trust in different kind of institutions is systematically compared across political systems. The study is based on five differ-ent data sources, three aggregated datasets (CSES, WVS and ESS) and two surveys of Swedish citizens (SOM and the Lore Citizen Panel). When it comes to regime support (and legitimacy) institutional trust matters; especially trust in electoral and judicial institutions. Quality of government matters also. Economic factors, however, matter less in this instance. Political factors rule, not economical. Nations succeed when there is trust in electoral and judicial institutions and when there are impartial public administrations.