Trust Cultures in Crisis: Scandal, Populism, and the Relational Dynamics of Democratic Legitimacy

This article advances trust research by theorizing political scandals as moments of rupture whereculturally embedded trust cultures, media logics, and populist strategies collide to reshapedemocratic legitimacy. Moving beyond proceduralist accounts, it conceptualizes trust as arelational, emotional, and historically situated practice—produced and fractured through moralexpectations and cultural scripts. Drawing on the Dengvaxia vaccine controversy in thePhilippines, the article traces how protective trust cultures centered on children and familial carewere activated and amplified by sensational media coverage, transforming a complex public healthissue into a national moral scandal. Populist actors strategically seized the moment, reframing thecontroversy as elite betrayal and recasting themselves as moral protectors of the people. Thisreconfiguration of trust not only delegitimized institutions but eroded vaccine confidence anddeepened political polarization. The case illustrates how, in contexts shaped by relational trustcultures, scandals become existential tests of democratic legitimacy—exposing the limits oftechnocratic responses and the power of emotional and cultural framings. By foregrounding trustcultures as an analytical lens, the article calls for greater attention to the cultural and emotionaldimensions of trust in media-driven democracies, particularly across the Global South wheredemocratic legitimacy remains deeply contested.