Reply to Sloan

Abstract

While previous studies have used trust in the government as an exogenous variable to measure political protest and other forms of social unrest, we treat it as a dependent variable. Thus, we attempt to identify variables that affect trust in government, and we also distinguish between those variables that transcend race and those that differentially affect black and white respondents. Using data from the 1987 General Social Survey, we regress trust in the government on a variety of demographic and ideological measures. Results show that political apathy and belief that the government is unresponsive to the needs of the people lead to low levels of trust, regardless of the respondent's race. However, ideological variables such as political and religious views display different patterns for black and white respondents. While these variables do not affect black respondents' attitudes toward the government, they have a strong effect for white respondents. Implications of this study are discussed.