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Trust links ordinary citizens to the institutions that are intended to represent them, and thereby enhancing both the legitimacy and the effectiveness of democratic government (Bianco 1994; Gamson 1968; Braithwaite and Levi 1998; Hetherington 1998). It is therefore an essential part of a democratic system. People have confidence in their leaders when the government is working well, and absence of political confidence could threaten the system’s legitimacy. Mistrust by the citizens is often expressed as an unwillingness to follow political outcomes, which prevents progress from happening in the political process (Norris 1999). In this thesis I investigate whether economic performance affects political trust, and if the 2008 financial crisis has decreased confidence levels due to the severity of its consequences. By using multilevel modeling to analyze data from 25 European countries, I find that economic performance is an important component in levels of trust. I am also able to conclude that the financial crisis has reduced citizen’s trust in political institutions in the countries where the crisis has had a severe impact on the economy. As much research emphasizes the importance of individual perception of economic performance, this has also been tested for. The results indicate that individual perception of the economic situation, influence trust just as much, if not more, than the actual economic situation.

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While numerous studies have been conducted on the subject of political participation, research on how corruption and political trust affect the way citizens participate in politics has yet to produce consistent and clear results. The divide in perspectives surrounds whether these phenomena spur citizens to take action or, on the contrary, render them apathetic and indifferent to political events. Through using the method of regression to analyze individual level data, this study attempts to examine how political trust and perceived corruption impact non- institutionalized political participation in South Korea. While results indicate no statistically significant effects for political trust, perceived corruption is suggested to have a positive effect on non-institutionalized forms of participation.

This dissertation explores the effects of mass-mediated taxpayer discourse on citizen perceptions of citizen-government relations in the context of the United States, a country where media and political discourse is heavily saturated with taxpayer talk. Specifically, this study considers two contrasting rhetorical constructions of the taxpayer. The first portrays the taxpayer as subordinate to the state by framing taxpaying as a citizen’s obligation through discussing it in legal and procedural terms of tax collection. The second constructs the taxpayer as a partner to which the government is accountable by emphasizing spending tax revenues and thus foregrounding the role of taxpaying in citizen’s claims for greater control over government actions. Drawing on a variety of perspectives from political science, mass communication, tax compliance research, history, and social cognition, I developed and tested two models to predict the effects of these contrasting constructions on two dimensions of citizen-government relations: power and trust. To test the models, I conducted two randomized controlled experiments: one that utilized a student sample recruited from a large undergraduate class at the University of Iowa (N=207), and one that replicated the results on a nationally representative adult sample (N=617). An additional experiment on a student sample (N=154) validated the experimental treatment. Taken together, the findings show that taxpayer discourse can affect citizen political judgement, but those effects do not operate through perceptions of power but instead through changes in political trust. When exposed to the tax-collection rhetoric, individuals in the nationally representative sample responded by deeming the government less trustworthy, which made them more motivated to monitor its actions. Notably, when participants were exposed to the public-spending frame, their reactions were statistically indistinguishable from those who did not read any taxpayer-related headlines at all. This suggest that in the context of the United States, where people are socialized into a public discourse that portrays the taxpayer as the ultimate sponsor and judge of government performance, this perspective can be internalized and become the default framework that citizens rely on in forming political judgement. However, when rhetorically denied this privileged position and placed in a subordinate role, citizens can push back by penalizing the government with greater distrust and reclaiming their right for citizen oversight. Importantly, the distrust-generating effect of the tax-collection frame is mitigated by the perceived scope of government reliance on taxes. The more reliant on taxpayer money participants perceived the state to be, the more trust this frame generated, which is consistent with a cognitive-dissonance explanation. Finally, changes in trust were triggered by taxpayer framing among actual taxpayers, leaving individuals with no actual experience unaffected. This study advances political communication research by refining the understanding of politically consequential citizen roles in communication scholarship to include that of the taxpayer as one of the most fiscally significant, personally relevant, media-salient, and — as this dissertation demonstrates — politically meaningful citizen roles. The project also contributes to political-science scholarship by suggesting that taxpayer discourse can prevent democratic backsliding in an established democracy and by making a case for considering the news media as an important element of the taxation-democratization nexus. In addition to scholarly significance, the dissertation has clear policy implications because it suggests new ways to communicate the benefits of democratic governance in more tangible, relatable terms of paying taxes and claiming greater accountability for government performance.

This dissertation examines the role of extreme media (i.e. political talk radio and cable news opinion shows) on the political attitudes of viewers and listeners. I investigate whether extreme media has both positive and negative externalities for democratic citizenship. Specifically, I use laboratory experiments, national survey data, and qualitative interviews to test the impact of extreme media on viewers' political knowledge, trust in government, efficacy, and political tolerance. I use laboratory experiments in controlled settings to uncover the impact of viewership on political knowledge, trust in government, and efficacy. I confirm these lab findings with the national survey data, by using propensity score matching and ordered probit models to demonstrate that exposure to extreme media produces political knowledge and efficacy, but decreases trust in government. I further use process tracing to ascertain the motivations individuals use to choose to view extreme media. Finally, through subject interviews conducted as part of the self-selection portion via a 1 x 3 self-selection experiment, I find subjects seek out entertaining media specifically from ideologically similar outlets. This project advances the media and politics literature by demonstrating the capacity for extreme media to alter political behavior, attitudes, and information processing.

A democratic system is stable or not relies on the political attitudes of the citizen. It is not enough to rely just on establishment of political system. More important is winning the support and trust of the general public. The trust on general public is the basis of legitimacy of ruling and it represents the level of trust of the general public to the government officials and public policy. The political trust refers to the attitudes of individual toward government official, decision of government, political figure, political phenomenon, and political code, political system as well as political structure. Whether people trust administration officials and public policy determines the level of support of people offered to present administration. In this paper, we adopted interview data in the project of ¡§Taiwan¡¦s Election and Democratization Study, 2003¡¨ in the effort to find out the difference in party identification, media contact and political knowledge based on individual background data and what are the connections between the above variables in one hand and the political trust provided to government agency and political figures on the other hand, and from which, it is hoped to find out the connection between political trust of general public of Taiwan and various factors, so as to provide governing agencies and political trust for reference in winning trust of the general public and the direction to endeavor. It is also hoped that the democratic politics of Taiwan will be more matured and secured.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the political attitudes of Senior high school (including professional school) students in Kaohsiung as well as the relationship between the factors of school and family and students¡¦ political attitudes. The subjects of this study are Senior high school students in Kaohsiung.The sampling method is to use stratified cluster sampling method. The 626 students from eight schools were sampled as effect samples. The questionnaire was used to investigate the political attitudes of students based on their gender, their school attribute, and their grade level. Additionally, the questionnaire was also used to explore the relationship between students¡¦ political attitudes and the factors of school and family, including teachers¡¦ styles of discipline, peer relationship, the atmosphere of school organization, club activity and parenting style. Political attitude scales include five types: attitude towards public affairs, sense of political trust, sense of citizen duty, sense of political efficacy, and concept of democracy. The questionnaire is constructed with reference to a review of related literature and is developed by the researcher. The data is analyzed by frequency distribution, percentile, average, standard deviation, t-test, Pearson product-moment correlation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results are summarized as follows: 1. The political attitudes of Senior high school students in Kaohsiung are positive. The results of ¡§ attitude towards public affairs¡¨, ¡§sense of citizen duty¡¨, and ¡§concept of democracy¡¨ are better. The average scores are 3.59 , 3.89 and 3.99.¡@The results of ¡§sense of political trust¡¨and¡§sense of political efficacy¡¨ are less satisfactory.¡@The scores are 2.65 and 2.90. 2. There is no significant difference on political attitudes of students between different genders. 3. There is significant difference on political attitudes of students between different school attributes. Regular high school students were more active than professional school students. 4. There is significant difference on political attitudes of students between different grade levels. 5. There is a significant positive relationship between students¡¦ political attitudes and their teachers¡¦ styles of discipline, peer relationship, atmosphere of school organization, club activity and parenting style. That is, students hold more positive political attitudes when teachers¡¦ styles of discipline are more democratic, peer relationship is closer, atmosphere of school organization is more democratic , club activities are more democratic, and parenting style is more democratic. 6. When political attitude is the independent variable, significant predicting ability is demonstrated in the following five variables¡G¡§ atmosphere of school organization¡¨, ¡§parenting style¡¨,¡§school attributes¡¨ ,¡§peer relationship¡¨, and ¡§association activity.¡¨ Based on the results of this study, the following suggestions are provided: 1. Teachers are suggested to encourage students to express their opinions in order to form democratic atmosphere of school organization. 2. Parents should actively show their concerns about children, accommodate their emotion, and love them. Parental disciplinary style should be democratic. 3. Students should establish good peer relationship and learn inter-personal relationship. 4. Teachers are suggested to encourage students to participate student clubs in order to promote a democratic culture on campus.

Mindre än hälften av svenska väljare uppger att de har stort förtroende för politiker. Kvantitativa data har legat till grund för tidigare forskning som sett samband mellan politikerförtroende och en mängd demografiska variabler. Kvalitativa studier inom ämnet saknas. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka skäl till att deltagare som haft förtroende för politiker tappat förtroendet i den utsträckningen att de inte röstat alternativt röstat blankt i 2018 års riksdagsval. Totalt intervjuades 9 män och 6 kvinnor med varierande ålder (25-63) och utbildningsnivå. Materialet analyserades tematiskt och följande teman identifierades: Politiker har låg trovärdighet, Missnöjd med systemet, Saknar partiidentifikation och En oacceptabel nivå. Deltagare gav ofta specifika exempel på situationer som lett till tappat politikerförtroende. Förtroende har åtminstone delvis tappats då deltagare inte anser att politiker är ärliga och att politiker inte lever upp till deltagarnas förväntningar. Fortsatta studier inom området rekommenderas för att ge en helhetsbild över tappat politikerförtroende.