According to many in the media, the level of trust in political processes has been dwindling in recent years. Most use complex arguments to suggest reasons for this and point to different evidence to justify their arguments. The extent to which this is down to the trust of the people working within these systems may be difficult to calculate, aside from the trust in the actual democratic systems. Fukuyama 1995 points towards cultural reasons for a lack of trust in political figures, in his writings he suggests that societies with a network of organisations and groups, such as...
the conclusion of the Putnam may have been correct in assuming that levels of political trust were falling, but his arguments are open to a great deal of scrutiny and his theory is perhaps too simple for a complex problem. Take this as well against the setting of increased media availability and attention, candidate based electioneering, a more educated public and illegal and immoral acts. The first period did witness a fall in the level of trust in politicians in my opinion, but the second has seen a rapid realignment as people strive to trust and to feel safe.