The Social Roots of Political Trust and Democracy. The French Critical Citizen Revisited

Political trust between citizens and their elected representatives is an essential feature of democracy, and it is central to effective governance, most particularly in times of uncertainty. Using the data from the CEVIPOF’s Barometer of Political Trust, this chapter explores the relationship between political trust and democratic attitudes in France. First, we look descriptively at levels of trust across political institutions, public services (health, education), and across different levels of government, showing significant variation. While French citizens have consistently higher levels of trust in local government and public services, political trust primarily concerns national political institutions. Comparative data show that this political distrust is much more polarized in France than in other countries and embedded in a rather negative social climate, characterized by strong social divides. Political distrust is directly correlated with electoral outcomes and resonates as a reflection of a range of dissatisfied and even critical attitudes towards the functioning of democracy. Our data analysis identifies five clusters that reflect highly differentiated relationships with democracy in France and thus differentiated levels of political trust. While we find some support for the classic critical citizen theory, our data show that political distrust is increasingly associated with a more global problem of legitimation of social norms—e.g. social justice, meritocracy—rather than the sole provision of services.