A Study On The Cause Of The Widespread Decline Of Political Trust In The West

The importance of political trust is self-evident,it is an essential element of the political system,it is the glue of the political system and the lubricant of policy implementation.Political trust means the legitimacy of rule for the governor and the sense of political belonging and security for the governed.Since 1970 s,there has been a worldwide decline in political trust;and while governments and political elites have continued to raise the level of political trust among the population,the result has often been the accumulation of political mistrust among the population.Even fell into the Tacitus Trap.So the scholars focus on the crisis of political trust.This paper attempts to explain theoretically what the root causes of the crisis of political trust are and what the common causes of transnational nature are behind the general decline of political trust.This paper holds that the crisis of political trust implies the crisis of modernity,the decline of political trust is embedded in modern political logic to some extent,and at the same time,globalization,modern mass media,Post-materialism and contemporary populism reshape modern politics and political trust.These factors are the important factors in the decline of the universality of political trust.In the sense of universality,the decline of political trust is actually a mirror of modern trust crisis,and also a aspect of many social crises in modern times.Modernity makes people lose the sense of security of existence and the sense of control over life,which leads to existential anxiety,which is the essence of trust crisis.The alienation of human nature caused by modernity is the root of the crisis of trust.Risk society and the fragility of the abstract system formed by the non-presence commitment based on disembedding exacerbate the decline of trust.The distinct characters of the modern politics are secularization and rationalization.The dualistic opposition between the publicity of modern political society and the private interests of individual citizens is the structural root of the crisis of modern political trust.The tradition of distrust of power in modern democratic politics is the historical root of the crisis of modern political trust,and the mechanism of institutionalized distrust is frequently initiated in modern politics,which weakens political trust and worsens political distrust.Modern countries have a strong national capacity,but the improvement of national capacity is not entirely used to protect the rights of citizens and enhance the welfare of citizens,which naturally affects the political trust of citizens.The development of globalization weakens the authority of the political system,blurs the boundary between the countries,restricts the power autonomy and governance ability of the country,and weakens the ability of cultural integration of the country.The seemingly strong national capacity is actually very fragile,which not only affects the performance of the state and the government,but also makes the impression of " incompetence" of the government more and more deeply rooted,and the foundation of political trust becomes fragile.The modern mass media,especially the internet media,dispel the positive image of the government and the political elite,and strengthen the discontent,anxiety and resentment in the people's reality,so it has a negative impact on the political trust in general.The rise of post-materialistic values makes people have a higher expectation of the government and political elite,and the government is becoming more and more difficult to obtain the high recognition and trust of the public,when the performance of the government is not good enough,Doubts and disappointments about the political system will intensify.With the rise of populism,people tend to hold negative and negative attitude towards the government and political elites,and the political trust space of the people is greatly compressed.As for the decline of the universality of political trust,we should realize rationally that the decline of the universality of political trust is the norm of modern politics,and that high political trust is not necessarily a evangel to the political community.For improving or preventing a slump in the political trust,the followings are very important: in terms of governance thinking,we should get rid of the thinking of rule by man,strengthen institutional constraints,establish and improve an institutionalized system of distrust,and promote governance through consultation in terms of governance methods.Strengthen people's sense of participation in governance,promote the rule of law from the goal of governance,make the rule of law become the cornerstone of political trust.