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Completed project

Political trust and polarization in Norway

Project period 2020–2021
Project nr. 10435

Political trust and polarization in Norway

The overall topic of this project is polarization of political trust in Norway. Political trust tends to be unequally distributed within most societies. Economic resources, labour market position, educational background and ethnic background are, among other factors, decisive for peoples' level of political trust. Thus, while it is important to study the average level of political trust in a society, we also need to examine whether there are systematic differences in trust between social groups. An unequal distribution of political trust would represent a type of political polarization that could undermine social cohesion.

The project is organized in two WPs. The first WP is a longitudinal study of political trust in Norway. Norway is a high-trusting country compared to most other countries, but the question is whether this average level masks major differences between social groups. Do we find signs of an increasingly unequal distribution of political trust over time? In particular, this WP pays attention to differences in political trust between people with different ethnic background. The second WP looks more closely at the concept ‘political trust’ from the perspective of citizens. Do distrustful citizens have different expectations to politicians than citizens who are more trustful? Moreover, do different social groups assign different meaning to the concept ‘political trust’?

Participants

Atle Hennum Haugsgjerd PhD Senior Research Fellow +47 930 58 583 Send e-mail
Jo Saglie Dr. polit. Research Professor +47 991 62 131 Send e-mail
Signe Bock Segaard PhD Research Professor +47 994 28 724 Send e-mail
Marte Winsvold PhD Senior Research Fellow +47 930 33 752 Send e-mail
Published Jan. 20, 2020 9:21 AM - Last modified Feb. 23, 2024 8:59 AM