The concept of political trust and the reality of posttotalitarianism (methodological aspect)

Abstract

The article considers the interrelation between the mechanisms of total control implementation and political trust formation in a totalitarian state with an emphasis on the goals and methods of shaping social awareness, which determines the features of the further transformation of the political regime. In particular, the expediency of interpreting the features of posttotalitarian consciousness as a factor in the formation of institutional trust in the process of democratization is argued. The relevance of the research question is determined by the fact that political trust is traditionally analyzed to explain public support for politicians or political institutions in a democratic or transitional regime. However, sometimes scholars ignore or even deny its role in supporting certain types of undemocratic authority. In this context, considering the general interpretation of totalitarianism as mass terror, as well as its broader understanding with the recognition of the monistic essence, the article proposes to shift the focus of attention to the controlling function of the state, realized through mass repressions, mass propaganda activities and the process of resocialization. Arguing that a totalitarian state requires a specific subjectivity from citizens in establishing such political control, the author proposes to consider the combination of violent coercion (external control) with political self-censorship (internal control) as a condition for its totality. Therefore, from a methodological point of view, the expediency of determing external control as a factor of the formation of political trust, and political self-censorship as a consequence of trust in totalitarian authority is argued. The article also substantiates that the government-supported inversion relationship between political and interpersonal trust is important for explaining the specifics of trust after the change of political regime in the state. Consequently, author proves that the so-called artificial formation of trust within the dictatorship plays a significant role in explaining post-totalitarian transformations. In particular, it determines the support of formal and informal political institutions in the context of democratization.

Keywords

• political trust
• totalitarianism
• democratization
• political awareness
• social atomization
• propaganda