On their own turf? The level-specificity of political trust in multilevel political systems

Abstract Although the debate on roots of political trust is ongoing, many scholars agree relevance such factors as political/ideological distance between citizens and incumbents, responsiveness perceptions performance. Less clear to what extent evaluations are generalized or specific for three main arenas in European multilevel governance system (EU, national, local). With new data from Netherlands, we demonstrate that local, national EU governments (1) largely level-specific (i.e. based citizens’ incumbents at a particular level) (2) and—at all levels—is explained by factors. This shows subjectively rational evaluation develop meaningful orientations vis-à-vis different levels. Therefore, spillovers may be less relevant explaining than assumed previous research executive levels judged “on their own turf”.