The influence of participation in civic spaces on perceived political trust: Lessons from two case studies in the Netherlands

As governments increasingly turn to participation to increase political trust among their citizens, it becomes urgent to understand the relationship between participation and trust. We explore how participants of two case studies – in invited spaces and citizens’ governance spaces – perceive the influence of their participation on political trust. We find that both government responsiveness and citizens’ expectations affect political trust. In the case of citizens’ governance spaces, governments can meet the expectations of citizens, and political trust increases. However, in the case study on invited spaces, citizens expect more of the government than it can deliver, which negatively impacts citizens’ trust. This challenges assumptions both about participation raising trust no matter what happens, and about the ‘Matthew-effect’, which predicts that savvy citizens will see their trust rise easily. Raising trust at the level of participatory spaces requires calibration of mutual ambitions rather than mere ‘expectation management’.