Support for Technocratic and Authoritarian Governance in Times of Crisis: The Role of Trust and COVID-19 Concerns

Abstract There is a dearth of research into the combined effect of political trust and societal concern on preferences for different models of governance. Using a quota sample of the Italian adult population surveyed in October 2021 (N = 1,151), we conducted two moderated regressions to predict the support for technocratic and authoritarian governance as a function of trust in epistemic and nonpartisan institutions, health and economic concerns, and their interactions. Consistent with a distrustful complacency hypothesis, which predicts an interactive effect of trust and concern, support for technocratic governance was the lowest among participants who had low trust in epistemic institutions and were not concerned about the health consequences of COVID-19. In addition, support for authoritarian governance was the lowest among those who had high trust in nonpartisan institutions and were not concerned about the economic consequences of COVID-19. This study therefore expands the distrustful complacency hypothesis, applying it for the first time to governance preferences and thus adding to the literature on trust in institutions. We discuss limitations, strengths, and possible developments.