Building Trust – Can Infrastructure Development Improve Government Trust in Brazil?
Abstract
Governments that suffer low levels of citizen trust generally have worse policy outcomes and less citizen compliance, making it difficult to pursue other policy goals. However, scholarship on government trust in low trust environments and how to improve trust is limited. In this paper, I propose that successful infrastructure development projects within a single country, because they are a uniquely visible government policy, serve to increase citizen trust in government. Using data from the Luz Para Todos program in Brazil, which is a federal program that provides electricity to households that lack it, I examine the effects of this particular infrastructure development program on blank voting rates, which are associated with trust in government. I expected find that municipalities with more recipients of the Luz Para Todos program will have higher trust in government. I also expected this relationship to have both spatial and temporal components. While one measure of trust supported these hypotheses, an alternative measure of trust did not, leaving mixed results for the relationship between infrastructure development and trust.
Subject
government trustinfrastructure
infrastructure development
citizen compliance
voter turnout
blank voting
Brazil
voting behavior
Luz Para Todos
social capital
Citation
Krenek, Kelly (2021). Building Trust – Can Infrastructure Development Improve Government Trust in Brazil?. Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /194337.