The influence of Political trust on the acceptance of Violence

Mario Villagran

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arXiv · 2510.04352

The influence of Political trust on the acceptance of Violence

Mario Villagran

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Abstract

The choice of protest tactics in a social movement has often been analyzed based on the demands, participants, and internal characteristics of the movement. However, recent evidence highlights the context or setting in which the demonstration takes place as another key element in the process; Using structural equation modeling, studies have shown a link between high perceptions of injustice in the treatment received by authorities and a greater acceptance of non-normative and/or violent methods of protest. In line with this approach, this article aims to examine the extent to which another form of authority legitimacy -- such as political trust -- affects the overall justification for the use of violence by both protesters and the police. Using longitudinal data from Chile (2016 -- 2019), which captures the collective protests of the ``Social Outbreak'', three analytical approaches -- fixed effects, cross-lagged, and multilevel models -- demonstrate that declining political trust not only weakened public acceptance of police violence but also increased tolerance toward protesters' use of violent tactics. This relationship adds a new dimension to the analysis of violent protests, suggesting that low political trust in many modern states may be a contributing factor to the increasing radicalization of demonstrations in recent years.

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Mario Villagran. 2025-10-05. The influence of Political trust on the acceptance of Violence. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.04352

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