Misconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trust
One reason given for declining levels of trust in politicians and institutions is the incidence of scandals involving voters' representatives. Politicians implicated in scandals, especially financial scandals, typically see their constituents' support for them decrease. It has been suggest...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2024
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| _version_ | 1826317175274602496 |
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| author | Kelly, E Tilley, J |
| author_facet | Kelly, E Tilley, J |
| author_sort | Kelly, E |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | One reason given for declining levels of trust in politicians and institutions is the incidence of scandals involving voters' representatives. Politicians implicated in scandals, especially financial scandals, typically see their constituents' support for them decrease. It has been suggested that these specific negative judgements about a representative's misconduct spill over onto diffuse political trust in the system as a whole. We argue that the 2009 Parliamentary expenses scandal in the United Kingdom is a strong test of these scandal spillover effects in a non-experimental context. Yet, using a multilevel analysis of survey and representative implication data, we find no evidence for these effects. This is despite voters being aware of their MP's scandal implication, and this awareness affecting voters' support for their own MP. We conclude that voters' judgements about their constituency representatives are unlikely to affect their diffuse political trust.
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| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:18:27Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:290ff981-0790-4264-9170-dd0daaccac25 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:35:54Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:290ff981-0790-4264-9170-dd0daaccac252025-01-31T11:08:48ZMisconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trustJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_545buuid:290ff981-0790-4264-9170-dd0daaccac25EnglishSymplectic ElementsCambridge University Press2024Kelly, ETilley, JOne reason given for declining levels of trust in politicians and institutions is the incidence of scandals involving voters' representatives. Politicians implicated in scandals, especially financial scandals, typically see their constituents' support for them decrease. It has been suggested that these specific negative judgements about a representative's misconduct spill over onto diffuse political trust in the system as a whole. We argue that the 2009 Parliamentary expenses scandal in the United Kingdom is a strong test of these scandal spillover effects in a non-experimental context. Yet, using a multilevel analysis of survey and representative implication data, we find no evidence for these effects. This is despite voters being aware of their MP's scandal implication, and this awareness affecting voters' support for their own MP. We conclude that voters' judgements about their constituency representatives are unlikely to affect their diffuse political trust. |
| spellingShingle | Kelly, E Tilley, J Misconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trust |
| title | Misconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trust |
| title_full | Misconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trust |
| title_fullStr | Misconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trust |
| title_full_unstemmed | Misconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trust |
| title_short | Misconduct by voters' own representatives does not affect voters' generalized political trust |
| title_sort | misconduct by voters own representatives does not affect voters generalized political trust |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kellye misconductbyvotersownrepresentativesdoesnotaffectvotersgeneralizedpoliticaltrust AT tilleyj misconductbyvotersownrepresentativesdoesnotaffectvotersgeneralizedpoliticaltrust |