Finland: A Country of High Political Trust and Weak Political Self-efficacy

Abstract

This chapter discusses the association between political trust and political self-efficacy in Finland. Finland has among the highest levels of political trust in the world, but simultaneously the levels of political self-efficacy are comparatively on a much weaker level. As previous research has shown higher political trust and higher political self-efficacy to be associated at the individual level, this is somewhat unexpected. The findings in this chapter show that in the Finnish context a higher political self-efficacy, indeed, predicts lower political trust, adding support to the notion of well-informed citizens withdrawing their trust if they feel that the system is not acting according to their normative expectations. This chapter ends with a discussion about what the findings imply for the status of Finnish democracy, concluding that the findings should not necessarily be seen only in a negative light.