How do UK political elites reconcile with a low trust environment?
How do UK political elites reconcile with a low trust environment?
Evidence indicates that citizens widely regard politicians as untrustworthy. But do low levels of trust affect politicians’ behaviour? In this article, we draw on interviews conducted with UK political elites to understand: (a) whether they recognise a lack of public trust; (b) what they perceive as its causes and present as solutions; (c) how it affects the decision-making process; and (d) whether they feel it undermines their sense of legitimacy. While we find that UK political elites do acknowledge low levels of trust, they reveal that this has only modest effects on their activities, and the legitimacy to take major decisions is undented. Low trust offers political opportunities as well as threats. Low trust places few constraints on politicians’ ability to wield power. As a result, leading politicians may lack the motivation to take meaningful action to arrest low levels of citizens’ trust.
political elites, decision-making, UK politics, political trust
Butler, Chris
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Jennings, Will
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Stoker, Gerry
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Butler, Chris
4511a9f3-88e6-481f-be8d-6880f5b012b2
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Stoker, Gerry
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
Butler, Chris, Jennings, Will and Stoker, Gerry
(2025)
How do UK political elites reconcile with a low trust environment?
Political Studies.
(doi:10.1177/00323217241310945).
Abstract
Evidence indicates that citizens widely regard politicians as untrustworthy. But do low levels of trust affect politicians’ behaviour? In this article, we draw on interviews conducted with UK political elites to understand: (a) whether they recognise a lack of public trust; (b) what they perceive as its causes and present as solutions; (c) how it affects the decision-making process; and (d) whether they feel it undermines their sense of legitimacy. While we find that UK political elites do acknowledge low levels of trust, they reveal that this has only modest effects on their activities, and the legitimacy to take major decisions is undented. Low trust offers political opportunities as well as threats. Low trust places few constraints on politicians’ ability to wield power. As a result, leading politicians may lack the motivation to take meaningful action to arrest low levels of citizens’ trust.
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Butler, Jennings & Stoker - Elites Trust - Accepted Manuscript
- Accepted Manuscript
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butler-et-al-2025-how-do-uk-political-elites-reconcile-with-a-low-trust-environment
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Accepted/In Press date: 13 December 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 January 2025
Keywords:
political elites, decision-making, UK politics, political trust
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Local EPrints ID: 497575
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/497575
ISSN: 0032-3217
PURE UUID: 74a42004-edad-4299-8fd3-559ea42d8adf
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Date deposited: 27 Jan 2025 18:03
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:06
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Author:
Chris Butler
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