Do millennials trust in political institutions? A study of indonesia youth political trust

The importance of trust in government plays a fundamental role for legitimacy and strengthening
state-society relationship. It has been long known that the ability to govern people rest on weapon, food and
trust especially in Confucian tradition. In the context of Indonesia, it is important to see the millennials‟
preference in government. Furthermore, such study may bring a better understanding on the level of political
trust young people have. This information is paramount as Indonesia is stepping to the first phase of having the majority of working-age population, which will expectedly reach 189 million people in 2020 (World Bank,
2014). In other words, the vast majority of the Indonesian population are in productive age and their level of
confidence toward government institution is an important map for the current government officials, especially in designing effective development policy. For that reason, this study addresses a research question: What is the level of confidence toward government institution that the millennials have? The data collection was conducted through online and offline survey and we limited respondents only for those attended in senior highschooand college students. A total of 1584 respondents were collected from ten selected cities in Sulawesi, Sumatera, Java and West Nusa Tenggara islands. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics to map the level of political trust. The results show that although the majority of respondents trusted executive government bodies, a significant number are in the opposite. This is not the case for legislative bodies, where themajorityof respondents chose “not trust”. While the millennials were sceptical about what the media have reported,the millennials seemed to have more positive perception toward religious leaders.