The concept of moral trust refers to the trust in government that exists generally as a component of the values of a community; it is chiefly a product of socialization.
By contrast, rational trust situates trust in government in the individual who calculates a running tally of encounters with government and decides on an ongoing basis whether or not it is rational to continue to trust the government.
Principle #1: All political behavior has a purpose. Political actors engage in instrumental acts to achieve their goals.
Perhaps people trust in instrumental ways as well. Following the concept of rational trust, we can understand citizen trust in government as a result of their political goals and their concluding views of what constitutes appropriate use of government power and influence.
Partisan trust posits that Republican and Democratic voters are more likely to trust the government if (and to the extent that) their party controls the government. That is, Republican voters are more likely to trust a Republican-controlled government just as Democrats are more likely to trust a Democratic-controlled government. In important ways, partisan trust can be considered a subset of rational trust with partisan goals the predominant factor in evaluating the government.
The question of moral trust in government has changed over time. Although overall citizens’ trust in government declined considerably in the second half of the 20th century, there has also been variation in the levels of government trust that liberals and conservatives exhibit.
In the 1960s, for example, liberals as well as the radical left were more likely to register distrust in government over the role of the intrusive roles of the FBI and intelligence agencies and/or United States military and foreign policy (most notably, Vietnam).
By the same token, distrust in “big government” and its threats to liberty and the market economy were key elements of the conservative movement in the 1980s and 1990s.
Question 1: What has happened to public trust in government from 1964 to 2004?
Question 2: What might explain the decline in trust during this time? Explain the decline in trust both in terms of the “moral trust” and “rational trust” views.
Question 3: What might explain the sharp rise in the public’s trust in government from 2000 to 2002 and then the partial decline from 2002 to 2004?
How do levels of trust in government and its institutions differ in regard to partisanship?
In 1991, the Democrats controlled Congress. As such, we might expect that Republicans would be more likely to distrust Congress; that is, a Congress that was promoting and passing Democratic policies.
After the 1994 elections, Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in four decades. Did partisans respond in terms of their trust in the institution? Were Democrats more likely to distrust a Republican-controlled Congress that was promoting and passing Republican policies?
Question 4: Does confidence in Congress follow the logic of “partisan trust”? How might the concept of partisan trust predict/explain the likely outcomes of the 2006 congressional elections?
Question 5: What do the differences between liberals, conservatives and moderates suggest about the concept of “moral trust”?
