ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors seek to place the concepts of trust and ideology in a broader political context, which they hope will prove more useful for understanding the dynamics of policy disputes over nuclear facility siting. They deal with the primary focus on the particular linkages among trust, ideology, and nuclear policy attitudes may impoverish their understanding of the political nature of attitudes about nuclear risk. The authors describe the primary emphasis given to ideology as a determinant of attitudes and risk perceptions in nuclear policy issues. They explain retesting the standard hypotheses that perceptions of political risks are related to ideology and trust. The authors show that levels of trust in prominent policy elites will be influenced by external political efficacy, ideology, and cultural bias. The role of cultural bias is compounded through its own indirect influences on risk perception via its connection to trust in policy elites.
