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Voice, representation and trust in parliament

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Abstract

The procedural justice literature argues that providing individuals voice in institutional processes facilitates trust in that institution. For democratic institutions, voice is provided to the citizenry via political representation. In this article, I apply the procedural justice argument to trust in parliament, equating representation with voice: if individuals believe they are represented in parliament, they will trust parliament more than if they believe otherwise. Analyses of data from three of four countries find support for this argument: those individuals who believe that a party with at least one seat in parliament represents their views trust parliament more than those who do not. This relationship holds even when accounting for political self-interest. For those who wish to promote trust in parliament, a suggested normative good with a host of politically important consequences, one potential pathway is to facilitate individuals’ belief that there is a party in parliament that represents them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, 30-32 Hyde Terrace, room 303, Leeds, LS2 9LN, UK

    Kris Dunn

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Appendices

Appendix A

Table A1

Table A1 Summary statistics
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Appendix B

Table B1

Table B1 (a, b) OLS regression and (c) Ordered logistic regression predicting trust in parliament (imputed)
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Dunn, K. Voice, representation and trust in parliament. Acta Polit 50, 171–192 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2014.15

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