Political Trust in Nonconsolidated Democracies: The Turkish Case in Comparative Perspective

Citizens' support and trust in political institutions are vital for the stability of democratic regimes. When people trust political institutions, they are more inclined to engage in efficacious policymaking and moral civic behavior. Recent trends of political trust in consolidated democracies throughout the world ring alarm bells. Declining popular confidence in political institutions manifests in lower voter turnout, decreased party membership, and the emergence of extremist parties and politicians in many established democracies.

A brief look at the relationship between quality of democracy and political trust reveals interesting insights. As Figure 1 shows, there is a negative relationship between quality of democracy and political trust throughout the world. Based on political trust indicators from Wave 6 of the World Values Survey (WVS) and utilizing the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) polyarchy variable to measure quality of democracy (in at least electoral democracies extending to consolidated ones), we observe that as quality of democracy rises, the level of public confidence in political institutions diminishes. While the reasons for the declining trend of political trust in more consolidated democracies merit another line of valuable research, it is obvious that the correlates of political trust in nonconsolidated democracies beg for a more in-depth approach to sources of public confidence in political institutions in these new, nonconsolidated democracies.