Political Trust, Ideology, and Public Support for Tax Cuts

This article analyzes the relationship between political trust, ideology, and public support for tax cutting. Conceptualizing tax cuts as government action under conditions of risk, I argue that political trust should increase rather than decrease public support for tax cutting, particularly among those for whom endorsement of tax cuts entails ideological sacrifice. The results show that political trust increases support for a variety of tax cut initiatives, but only among liberals. The results further suggest that trust is an instrumental resource that can bolster support for a conservative as well as a liberal policy agenda.