Validly measuring political trust

10 July 2024

The societally highly salient issue of political trust is studied intensively in political science. However, widely used measures of political trust do not reflect its multidimensional nature. We propose to develop and empirically validate a novel measure of political trust incorporating its four key dimensions – competence, care, accountability, and reliability. We do so for three distinct institutions and actors in order to explore the breadth of its relevance. Using our novel measure, we analyze whether the often-used single-item measure of political trust validly captures political trust, and, if not, provide and empirically validate a theoretically grounded alternative measure. The high-quality LISS panel enables us to do so among a representative sample of the Dutch population. Next to substantial impact on a flourishing field of research, our results promise to be relevant to policymakers and advisory bodies involved with assessing political trust among citizens.