The Effect of Political Trust on the Voter Turnout of the Lower Educated

Abstract

This research examines what the role of political trust is in explaining the low voter turnout among the lower educated, using data from the 2010 European Social Survey. We find that the lower a person is educated, the less trust he/she has in the country’s parliament, the legal system and politicians (while controlling for age, gender and political interest). Furthermore, those with lower levels of trust are less likely to vote in the national elections. The most remarkable finding of this study is the difference between forms of trust in ‘permanent’ political actors (the country’s parliament and the legal system) and trust in ‘changeable’ actors (political parties and politicians). Whereas the lower educated have less trust in the permanent actors than the higher educated, this effect is much less visible for trust in the changeable actors. This evidence suggests that improving the trust of the lower educated in politics as a whole needs attention in society.