How political malpractice affects trust in EU institutions

Content Provider	Scilit
Author	Elsas, Erika J. Van Brosius, Anna Marquart, Franziska Vreese, Claes H. De
Copyright Year	2019
Description	Journal: West European Politics Political misconduct is known to harm the politicians involved. Yet, we know less about how such events affect trust in political institutions. We study a real-world political malpractice affair in the European Commission, using a three-wave panel design to investigate how information about the affair influences trust in EU institutions. This enables us, first, to isolate the impact of new information on political trust, remedying endogeneity issues common in political trust research. Second, we assess which institutions are affected most (specificity) and whether effects depend upon citizens' sophistication levels (conditionality). Finally, we assess the durability of effects over time. Our findings demonstrate that citizens obtain knowledge about EU affairs through the media, and use this knowledge in their trust evaluations. In doing so, citizens differentiate between EU and national institutions, with trust in the European Commission affected most. This suggests a sophisticated process and highlights the evaluative nature of political trust.
Related Links	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01402382.2019.1667654?needAccess=true
Ending Page	968
Page Count	25
Starting Page	944
ISSN	01402382
e-ISSN	17439655
DOI	10.1080/01402382.2019.1667654
Journal	West European Politics
Issue Number	4
Volume Number	43
Language	English
Publisher	Informa UK Limited
Publisher Date	2019-10-14
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Journal: West European Politics Public Administration Political Trust Media Effects Political Scandal Eu Institutions
Content Type	Text
Subject	Political Science and International Relations