POL1AUP Essay: Decline of Trust in Government in Democracies

This essay delves into the critical issue of declining trust in government within liberal democracies, a trend observed in recent years across various developed nations. The author explores the core reasons behind this erosion of public faith, including perceived governmental incompetence, politicians' failure to prioritize citizen interests, and the influence of corporate entities. The essay highlights specific examples and statistical data to support the argument, such as the decline of trust in countries like Australia, the United States and other European countries. The author concludes by emphasizing the need for governmental reforms to restore public trust and maintain the integrity of democratic systems. The essay utilizes several academic sources to support its claims and provide a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

Running head: DECLINE OF TRUST IN GOVERNMENT IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES
Decline of Trust in the Government in Liberal Democracies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1DECLINE OF TRUST IN THE GOVERNMENT IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES
Democracy is considered to be one of the most important system of the Government
in the present world. It refers to a system of the government where the people exercise their
power with the help of the votes which they cast in support of their representatives in the
Governement itself. The representatives, if they become ministers try to work in order to
solve the interests of the people in the country themselves. In a liberal democracy, the ability
of the representative to exercise their power is subject to the laws of the country which also
look to the matter of protecting the rights and the duties of the public themselves. However,
in the recent times, it has been seen that the trust of the audience in the liberal democratic
Government has been declining for a number of reasons. The essay will try to finds out the
exact causes of this decline.
The purpose of this essay is to find out why the trust of the people in the
Government in the liberal democracies are declining at a stronger rate than in any
other forms of democracy.
It is well known by the readers themselves that the democratic form of Governments
are based on the trust which the citizens of the Government places on the representatives who
run the Government themselves. The factor of trust is even more important in the system of
liberal democracies because the people in such kinds of democracies have the subject of law
on which they place their trust as these law would help them to decide in what manner the
citizens would abide by the rights and the duties that they should have to the state themselves.
However, it has been seen that the individuals themselves are claiming the fact that there are
trust issues present in the concept of the liberal democracy (Della Porte, 2013). These trust
issues arise because in many cases, it has been found that the institutions that are supposed to
represent the trust of the p3eople themselves are plotting against the same people or is
placing the restrictions on the rights and the duties of the citizens of the country themselves
(Muller, 2017). Sometimes, it has also been found that the politicians who are supposed to

2DECLINE OF TRUST IN THE GOVERNMENT IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES
represent the interest of the people of the country themselves are found to be incompetent of
carrying out the activities which the citizens expect from them. Thus, this leads to the
dissatisfaction among the people of the country which starts in them losing their faith on the
Government and the liberal democratic system which has been present in their country for so
long.
As stated by Kreisi (2013), a recent study carried out by The Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development has pointed out the fact that the trust of the people
in the liberal; democratic Government had decreased in the recent years more than it did in
the past years itself. The same study also points out the fact that this trust had deteriorated
with fewer than four in the developed countries in the world which accounts for more than
that of the moderate to high levels of trust which was present in the North American and the
European countries of the world. In countries like Australia, it has been found in a survey that
the people of the country are not at all satisfied with the way the politicians and the
democratic institutions of the country had been functioning. All these facts prove to the
readers that the people of Australia are gradually losing their trust in the Government
institutions of their country. This is supported by the fact that the people of the country of
Australia are not happy with the way the politics of the country is currently working. While
in other countries like the United States as well as many other European countries itself, the
people’s trust in the Government of the country itself had dropped from 39% to 19% in the
last few years.
This fact is proved by the point there are a number of reasons why the people in
Australia and in other liberal democracies are losing their interest and their trust in the
Government and the political institutions of the country itself. Firstly, it because of the fact
that the politicians do not really carer about the people of the state which is the main reason
why the promises which they make to the citizens at the time of the elections (Ikela, 2013).

3DECLINE OF TRUST IN THE GOVERNMENT IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES
The other reasons for the decline in the trust in the democracy of the countries is the fact that
the politicians and the Government of these countries only deals with the issues that are
secondary. They do not pay the desired attention to the important matters such as various
problems which might be affecting the people of the country or the wellbeing of the people
themselves. As stated by Della Porta (2013), all of these factors prove the point why the
interests of the people in the country is declining wherever there are democracies present in
the country itself.
Apart from these factors itself, other factors include the manipulation of the
politicians and the Ministers of these countries by the big business corporations which
controls a large amount of power in the politics of those countries. It is because of these
reasons itself that the trade unions are identified by the liberal and the Nationalist parties in
the country which gives them more power to control in the Government of the country itself
(Citrine et.all, 2014).
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that the interests of the people in the
liberal democratic type of Government in the countries itself is indeed decreasing. This is
because of the negligence of the politicians in the country and the pressing issues which
affect the people of these countries. It can be concluded by saying the point that unless the
Government takes steps which would improve the functioning of the democracies of the
countries itself, there will come a time when the concept of democracy will become extinct
for the people of the countries themselves.

4DECLINE OF TRUST IN THE GOVERNMENT IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES
Reference List
Citrin, J., Levy, M. and Wright, M., 2014. Multicultural policy and political support in
European democracies. Comparative Political Studies, 47(11), pp.1531-1557.
Della Porta, D., 2013. Can democracy be saved?: participation, deliberation and social
movements. John Wiley & Sons.
Ikeda, K.I., 2013. Social and Institutional Trust in East and Southeast Asia. Taiwan Journal
of Democracy, 9(1).
Kriesi, H., 2013. Democratic legitimacy: Is there a legitimacy crisis in contemporary
politics?. Politische Vierteljahresschrift, pp.609-638.
Marien, S. and Christensen, H.S., 2013. Trust and openness: Prerequisites for democratic
engagement?. In Democracy in Transition (pp. 109-134). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Müller, J., 2013. Mechanisms of trust: News media in democratic and authoritarian regimes.
Campus Verlag.
Pharr, S.J. and Putnam, R.D. eds., 2018. Disaffected democracies: What's troubling the
trilateral countries?. Princeton University Press.

5DECLINE OF TRUST IN THE GOVERNMENT IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES
Van der Meer, T.W. and Zmerli, S., 2017. The deeply rooted concern with political trust. In
Handbook on political trust. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Wang, Z. and You, Y., 2016. The arrival of critical citizens: Decline of political trust and
shifting public priorities in China. International Review of Sociology, 26(1), pp.105-124.