Social Capital And Political Trust: Analysis Based On Multiple Linear Regression

Political trust reflects the interaction between citizens and the political system,which is not only a barometer of government performance,but also a source of legitimacy for the regime.Concerning the source of political trust,there are two approaches,namely,institutionalism and culturalism in academia.Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up,China has created world-renowned economic miracles and has become the world’s second largest economy,thus economic performance undoubtedly has been a reliable source of political trust for Chinese people.However,under the increased pressure of economic downward,where does political trust come from? To answer the question,scholars have explored political performance,government governance,social structure,values and social capital.Yet,the relationship between social capital and political trust has been controversial in acadea.Therefore,this article focusing on the impact of society on political trust.Putnam’s definition of social capital,data of the “2015 China Urban and Rural Social Governance Survey” to examine the social capital of China’s citizens during the social transition period and explore the relationship between social capital and political trust from three dimensions: composed of social trust,social participation and trust from reciprocity norms by constructing a multiple linear regression model.First,this article reviewed related research on social capital and political trust,defined and analyzed concepts based on literature review and proposed relevant research hypotheses.Second,it selected variables and conducted operations based on previous research and related theories.Afterwards,the data of “2015 China Urban and Rural Social Governance Survey” was analyzed to showed the current state of Chinese people’s social capital and political trust by using descriptive statistical analysis and the data was discussed to investigate the impact of social capital on political trust by using correlation analysis and multiple linear regression methods.In study,it was found that found that social trust,social participation,and reciprocity norms all had a significant impact on political trust,and that different factors of social capital had different effects on government trust and regime trust.To illustrate,the research conclusions were as follows: Firstly,in the period of social transformation,political trust and social trust of Chinese people took a main form of grass-roots elections,and the participation of community activities was not high;in general,most of Chinese people followed the norms of reciprocity and focused on long-term interests in interpersonal communication.Secondly,the three elements of social capital had a direct impact on political trust.Social trust was an important source of political trust among three elements of social capital,which played a significantly positive role in government trust and regime trust;participation in grass-roots elections had a significantly positive impact merely on government trust;reciprocity norms only had a significantly positive effect on regime trust.Thirdly,the mediating effect of social trust among the three elements was significant,and there were transmission paths of “reciprocity norms—social trust—political trust” and “social participation—social trust—political trust”.Based on analysis and conclusions above,this article put forward the following suggestions: First,improve the level of social trust;second,encourage and promote participation in grass-roots elections and communal activities;third,cultivate a spirit of cooperation and mutual assistance.