Previous research shows that while democratic governments are generally fairly responsive towards their citizens, they might represent some people better than others. A potential explanation has been found in the structural inequalities in who participates, especially in those forms of direct political participation.
The paper investigates the potential positive effect of social trust on individual perception of government responsiveness. Research shows, in fact, that social trust contributes to build strong social networks which have the potential to mobilize people to take part in various political conversation and activities. By encouraging citizens’ political participation, we expect to find a direct, positive effect of social trust on public perceptions government responsiveness.
Finally, the use of survey data from the European Social Survey (ESS) allows to analyse how the relationship varies, not only according to socio-demographic characteristics, but also across a large and diverse sample of political institutions.