Trust the People? Populism, Trust, and Support for Direct Democracy

Wiesehomeier, Nina; Ruth Lovell, Saskia

Publication:
Trust the People? Populism, Trust, and Support for Direct Democracy

dc.contributor.author	Wiesehomeier, Nina
dc.contributor.author	Ruth Lovell, Saskia
dc.contributor.ror	https://ror.org/02jjdwm75
dc.date.accessioned	2025-01-16T13:25:03Z
dc.date.available	2025-01-16T13:25:03Z
dc.date.issued	2024-10-28
dc.description.abstract	Populism is commonly understood as a response to frustrations with the functioning of modern democracy, while the use of direct democratic mechanisms has been hailed as a remedy for the ailing of representative democracies. Indeed, populism’s emphasis on direct citizen participation in decision-making is tightly linked to its distrust of representative institutions and the political elite as the cornerstone of mediated representation. Trust, however, matters for any functioning democratic institutional arrangement, and we contend that its role warrants more attention when considering the viability of alternative modes of decision-making such as referendums, particularly in the nexus of populism–democracy. Using original public opinion surveys implemented in Argentina, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, we distinguish among different objects of trust—elites, institutions, “the people,” or the society at large. We also explore citizens’ levels of trust in these objects and their association with institutional designs of direct democracy. Our results offer preliminary insights into the importance of horizontal and vertical trust relationships in shaping procedural preferences for different configurations of direct democracy.
dc.description.peerreviewed	yes
dc.description.status	Published
dc.format	application/pdf
dc.identifier.citation	Wiesehomeier, N., & Ruth-Lovell, S. P. (2024). Trust the people? Populism, trust, and support for direct democracy. Politics and Governance, 12. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8648
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8648
dc.identifier.issn	2183-2463
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/3461
dc.journal.title	Politics and Governance
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	Cogitatio Press
dc.relation.department	Comparative Politics
dc.relation.entity	IE University
dc.relation.school	IE School of Politics, Economics & Global Affairs
dc.rights	Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es
dc.subject.keyword	Bottom‐up mechanisms
dc.subject.keyword	Direct democracy
dc.subject.keyword	Populism
dc.subject.keyword	Top‐down mechanisms
dc.title	Trust the People? Populism, Trust, and Support for Direct Democracy
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.version.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.volume.number	12
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	4fcebec6-0f61-4f90-9c0f-4de418487a2e