Explaining the decline of political trust in Australia

• DOI: 10.1080/10361146.2021.1960272
• Publication Date: 2021-08-06T10:40:23Z
• Authors: Ruth Dassonneville; Ian McAllister
• Keywords: Great recession

In most established democracies, trends in political trust recent decades have fluctuated, but not declined strongly. Citizens' democratic attitudes many countries even proven to be resilient the face of Great Recession. Such contrast sharply with observation a gradual and continued decline Australian's politics since 2007. Using combined file seven Australian Election Study surveys, employing exactly comparable questions methodologies, this paper tests two explanations – government performance detachment account for remarkable decline. The findings show that both lack by successive governments broad from matter. suggest there is no single explanation decline; rather, diverse range inter-related factors appear at work.