empirical analysis and determine that whites’ racial outlooks are impacted not by the racial
composition of neighborhoods, but instead by neighborhood socio-economic status.
While the evidence on how racial context influences racial attitudes may be inconclusive, to truly
understand the role of context in creating trust of individuals for others who are of a different
racial group and the local government, we investigate community context through the inclusion
of variables measuring the community’s educational attainment, income, percent African
American, Latino and Asian American population.
Understanding an individuals’ ability to trust their local political institutions has taken on
renewed importance in recent years with the devolution revolution. Local governments and
communities that enjoy citizen support are able to respond to the needs of the citizens in an
effective manner because local leaders have room to maneuver in the implementation of policies
(Gamson 1968). In addition, citizens trust and support for representative institutions are
importantly related to citizen compliance with governmental demands (Tyler 2001), such as tax
paying (Scholz and Lubell 1998) and military service (Levi 1997) and to beliefs about the scope
of governmental activity (Chanley, Rudolph and Rahn 2000). Furthermore, people’s views about
government affect their attitudes outside the political sphere. Brehm and Rahn (1997) find that
Americans who have confidence and trust in their political institutions also have higher levels of
social or generalized trust, the belief that strangers can be trusted. Social trust in turn is linked to
important indicators of the quality of life, such as health and personal happiness (Putnam 2000).
The degree of trust an individual possesses as it relates to their local government, has dramatic
affects on their quality of life.
2
By local government we mean jurisdictions of the county, special districts, school districts and municipal governments. See Rahn, Wendy and
Thomas Rudolph, “A Multi-Level Model of Trust in Local Government”, Understanding Public Opinion, 2
nd
Edition, pp 281-300. Washington,
D.C.: CQ Press.
9
Convention