Young adults today are politically alienated from (conventional) politics. Compared to older generations, Millennials and Generation Z have less interest in elections and political parties, vote less in elections, and face a crisis of political representation. Do they also have lower trust in government? To answer this question, we engage in a generational analysis across nearly 30 countries across the globe using data spanning the time frame from 2018 to 2024. Contrary to our expectations, we find that trust levels across different indicators of trust in government are relatively stable across generations. This suggests that young adults do not reject their governmental institutions more than other generations which is a positive finding for the survival of democracy and for regime stability. However, it comes with the caveat that distrustful youth of these generations, more so than distrustful members of other generations, might turn to other groups and organizations such as populist parties or movements that do not necessarily champion democracy.

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Age and Trust in Government: A Generational Analysis

  • Daniel Stockemer,
  • Kamila Kolodziejczyk,
  • Mira Buckle

摘要

Young adults today are politically alienated from (conventional) politics. Compared to older generations, Millennials and Generation Z have less interest in elections and political parties, vote less in elections, and face a crisis of political representation. Do they also have lower trust in government? To answer this question, we engage in a generational analysis across nearly 30 countries across the globe using data spanning the time frame from 2018 to 2024. Contrary to our expectations, we find that trust levels across different indicators of trust in government are relatively stable across generations. This suggests that young adults do not reject their governmental institutions more than other generations which is a positive finding for the survival of democracy and for regime stability. However, it comes with the caveat that distrustful youth of these generations, more so than distrustful members of other generations, might turn to other groups and organizations such as populist parties or movements that do not necessarily champion democracy.