‘Wrong Persons‐Are Making Right Decisions without Hearing Us’: Political Trust, Responsiveness of Politicians and Satisfaction with Governmental Policies in Finland*

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Abstract
That low trust in politicians in general endangers the political stability of a democratic political system is conventional wisdom even within the political science community. It is the purpose of the article to challenge this notion. It is claimed that, on the contrary, distrust of politicians in general may just be evidence of healthy scepticism. It should, on the other hand, be clear that high trust in politicians in general may also endanger the stability of a political system, even the whole existence of the democratic order. Total faith is blind faith. The main argument of the paper is supported with empirical evidence From Gallup polls in Finland (1974–1984), which show, among other things, that the overall satisfaction with governmental policies has been exceptionally high in our country.

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