The Influence of Domestic Political Equality and Membership of a Discriminated Group on Trust in the National and European Parliament Across EU Member States

The current paper studies whether domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group influence trust in the national parliament, and whether these effects spill-over to trust in the European Parliament. To do so, existing data from the European Social Survey (n=38,691) is combined with domestic political equality scores created by Freedom House. The study provides new insights as previous research has focused on different geographies, specific marginalized groups, or only on either the national or European Parliament. Results seem to indicate that domestic political equality has a significant positive relation with trust in national parliament. Additionally, members of discriminated groups show significantly lower trust in the national parliament than those individuals who do not consider themselves to be part of a discriminated group. The results also indicate a positive relationship between trust in national parliament and trust in the European Parliament....Show moreThe current paper studies whether domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group influence trust in the national parliament, and whether these effects spill-over to trust in the European Parliament. To do so, existing data from the European Social Survey (n=38,691) is combined with domestic political equality scores created by Freedom House. The study provides new insights as previous research has focused on different geographies, specific marginalized groups, or only on either the national or European Parliament. Results seem to indicate that domestic political equality has a significant positive relation with trust in national parliament. Additionally, members of discriminated groups show significantly lower trust in the national parliament than those individuals who do not consider themselves to be part of a discriminated group. The results also indicate a positive relationship between trust in national parliament and trust in the European Parliament. Additionally, it is shown that most of the effects of domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group on trust in the European Parliament are mediated by trust in national parliament. Nonetheless, there are significant residual direct effects in which both domestic political equality and membership of a discriminated group negatively impact trust in the European Parliament. While membership of a discriminated group exercises a negative direct effect on both trust in national parliament and European Parliament, domestic political equality shows a positive direct effect on trust in the national parliament but a negative direct effect on trust in the European Parliament. This seems to indicate that individuals living in politically unequal countries are more likely to trust the European Parliament unless they have high trust in the National parliament, and vice versa. There also seems to be an indication that the basis upon which individuals are discriminated against influences trust in both national parliament and the European Parliament. While those discriminated based on nationality, age, disability, language and 2 3 ‘other unspecified factors’ display decreased levels of trust in both national and European Parliament, those discriminated based on sexuality display increased levels of trust but only in the European Parliament. Individuals member of a group that is discriminated against based on race, ethnic group, or gender do not display different levels of trust in the national and European Parliament compared to those who are not discriminated against. In order to ensure trust in the national parliament it seems important to strive for the social inclusion of individuals who are part of a group that is currently discriminated against. National parliament might increase the level of trust of citizens towards the parliament by maximizing domestic political equality. Furthermore, the European Parliament should aim to increase trust in the national parliament as this will likely translate into increased levels of trust in the European Parliament as well.Show less

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The Influence of Domestic Political Equality and Membership of a Discriminated Group on Trust in the National and European Parliament Across EU Member States