Perceptions of people, process, and policy on political trust
by Karjala, Aleisha, Ph.D., THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, 2007, 241 pages; 3283864

Abstract:

The qualities of the people serving in government, the processes used, and the policies that result have been put forth in the literature as possible determinants of political trust (Miller and Borrelli 1991; Ulbig 2002; Erber and Lau 1990; Rahn and Rudolph 2005). Political evaluations of people, process, and policy can be seen as determinants of political trust. While previous scholarship hypothesizes them as such, there is no empirical work which investigates these three variables together. This project combines people, process, and policy into one study to examine their influence upon trust in relation to one another. Evaluations of people, process, and policy are found, through analysis of originally collected data, to influence both trust in government and trust in specific politicians. A representative national sample survey combined with the power of a randomized experiment was employed to study the effect of perceptions of people, process, and policy on trust. Survey questions asked participants to consider people, process, and policy on a global level, while the experimental design tested specific attributes of people, process, and policy. Findings from both the survey and the experiment indicate that, of these three, perceptions of policy had the greatest impact on trust. Perceptions of people followed closely behind policy, and the effect of process was the weakest. This convergence between survey and experimental findings lends confidence to the overall ability of evaluations of people and policy to explain trust in government.

 
AdviserGary Copeland
SchoolTHE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
SourceDAI/A 68-10, p. , Jan 2008
Source TypeDissertation
SubjectsPolitical Science
Publication Number3283864
Adobe PDF Access the complete dissertation:
 

» Find an electronic copy at your library.
  Use the link below to access a full citation record of this graduate work:
  http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl%3furl_ver=Z39.88-2004%26res_dat=xri:pqdiss%26rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation%26rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3283864
  If your library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database, you may be entitled to a free electronic version of this graduate work. If not, you will have the option to purchase one, and access a 24 page preview for free (if available).

About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
With over 2.3 million records, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. It is the database of record for graduate research.

The database includes citations of graduate works ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Of the 2.3 million graduate works included in the database, ProQuest offers more than 1.9 million in full text formats. Of those, over 860,000 are available in PDF format. More than 60,000 dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.

If you have questions, please feel free to visit the ProQuest Web site - http://www.proquest.com - or call ProQuest Hotline Customer Support at 1-800-521-3042.