Public Trust in State Institutions: A Comparative Analysis of the Military, Judiciary, and Parliament in Post-2023 Election Pakistan

Abstract

 The foundation of democratic stability, institutional legitimacy, and effectiveness of the governance is public trust. In transitional democracies like Pakistan trust on the state institutions is often defined by political turbulence, judicial activism, civil-military relations as well as electoral contestation. The 2023 general elections became the most significant turning point in the history of political direction in Pakistan, which fueled the discussion of the stylistic legitimacy of the institution and trust between citizens. The paper explores the relative trust of the Pakistani population in three major pillars of the Pakistani state the military, judiciary and parliament and determines the socio-political conditions that impact the legitimacy of institutions in the post-election context.

The study is based on a cross-sectional quantitative design through the analysis of the survey data of 714 respondents using stratified random sampling of the major urban districts. There was the use of statistical methods such as descriptive analysis, correlation matrices, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression model to examine predictors of institutional trust. The results indicate that there is a strong trust asymmetry with the military receiving the greatest trust rating followed by the judiciary and the parliament correspondingly having lower trust ratings. The outcome of regression indicates that the perceived institutional performance, political polarization, media exposure, and corruption perception are relevant predictors of trust changes.

Notably, the paper determines civic efficacy and democratic commitment as moderator factors that can alleviate distrust of representative institutions. The theoretical contribution to research is the synthesis of the Institutional Trust Theory and the Performance Legitimacy Frameworks, which shows that citizens are becoming more perceptive in the outcomes-based criterion instead of constitutional mandates alone when assessing institutional performance.

This research finds that to restore confidence in the representative institutions, it would be necessary to introduce visible governance changes, transparency in its procedures and enhancement of accountability measures. Unless institutional balance is restored, chronic lack of trust can increase the weaknesses of democracy and entrench non-representative power.

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