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The Origins of Political Trust in East Asian Democracies: Psychological, Cultural, and Institutional Arguments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2016

EUNJUNG CHOI  and
JONGSEOK WOO
EUNJUNG CHOI
Affiliation:
University of South Floridaechoi@usf.edu
JONGSEOK WOO
Affiliation:
University of South Floridawooj@usf.edu
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Abstract

While the importance of social and political trust has been well documented, there is a lack of scholarly consensus over where trust originates. This article tests three theoretical arguments – social-psychological, social-cultural, and political institutional – on the origin of political trust against three East Asian democracies (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan). The empirical analysis from the AsiaBarometer survey illustrates that political institutional theory best explains the origin of political trust in East Asian cases. Citizens of these East Asian democracies have a high level of political trust when they believe that their governments perform well in management of the national economy and political representation of elected officials. Meanwhile, social-psychological and social-cultural theories explain the origins of social trust, but not political trust. The evidence reveals that socially trusting people are not automatically politically trusting; social trust and political trust originate from different sources and do not transform from one to the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 410 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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