WHY DO WE TRUST OUR CONGRESSMAN

This analysis focuses on the little examined area of trust in politica l officials, in specific, constituents' trust in their U.S. House memb er. Employing new measures of trust in incumbent representatives, a co nfirmatory factor analysis is used to assure that the measures of cons tituents' trust are reliable. Then a structural model of constituents' trust is analyzed using LISREL. The findings indicate that constituen ts' trust is directly influenced by personal contact with the represen tative and trust in the political system, and indirectly influenced by perceptions of waste in government, economic evaluations, and socioec onomic status operating through system trust.