Mid Sweden University

This is a qualitative explanatory case study which analyzes the underlying factors behind the differences in the level of political trust between the United States, Japan and Sweden. The study’s theoretical perspective was based on David Easton’s system theory. The study was carried out by analyzing historical events or contemporary circumstances which correlated with the level of political trust in the country, then selecting the most important of these based on further sources which supported their causality and importance. The study found that the most important factors in the United States were the historical aftermath of the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, the experienced discriminatory structure of the electoral system and disproportionate police brutality against the black population. The most important factors in Japan were the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s near complete dominance over Japanese politics, causing widespread apathy among voters, and the unpopularity of the Japanese Constitution. The most important factors in Sweden were how the construction of the Welfare State gave rise to a form of social contract in which the government and the individual were set in a mutual alliance, which led to public institutions having a high degree of trust from the population.