Journal
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS
Volume 49, Issue 2, Pages 277-289Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2020.09.005
Keywords
Trust in government; Crisis; WWII; World War II; Referenda; Switzerland
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Funding
- Australian Research Council (ARC) [FT110100463]
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The research examines the impact of crises on trust in government using the increased military threat to neutral Switzerland during the two World Wars as a quasi-experimental setting. The findings suggest that constituents are significantly less likely to follow governmental voting recommendations during wartime, indicating a decline in trust.
Do crises erode trust in government? To answer this question, we leverage the quasi-experimental setting of the sharply increased military threat to the neutral country of Switzerland during the two world wars as an exogenous shock. In doing so, we exploit a unique feature of Swiss politics: government issuance of pre-referenda voting recommendations. We use constituent adherence to government recommendations as a behavioral proxy for trust in government, measured in real time prior to, during, and after the crisis. Our empirical estimates provide strong evidence that constituents are significantly less likely to follow governmental voting recommendations during wartime.
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