in 2007 and in 2008, respectively. We also find that the more citizens listen to the radio, the greater their likelihood of trusting their local government councillors. In contrast, higher attendance to the ward committees does not seem to be associated with changes in citizens beliefs. All together, these results speak of the positive effects played by councillors’ outreach efforts in shaping the attitudes of ordinary citizens toward state authorities. They are also consistent with recent qualitative research pointing at the positive impact of outreach radio campaigns in aiding more effective communication and physical interactions with political authorities, eventually generating a stronger sense of ownership of local development process and inclusion among the local communities (Larizza and Glynn, 2011).<sup>15</sup> — Membership in community associations a political party, cooperative or a religious — group is positively correlated with views about the trustworthiness of local councillors. The predicted probability of viewing the local council as trustworthy is 9.0, 5.0 and 3.0 percentage points higher for respondents who in 2008 belonged to a political party, a cooperative or a religious group, respectively. This is consistent with previous research pointing at a growing level of civic activism at the grassroots level in post-conflict Sierra Leone (Zhou, 2009, pp. 97-99), and suggest that citizens might take advantage of their membership of interests groups to collectively mobilize and become active in demanding service improvements and government responsiveness to their needs.

In contrast to our expectations, very few of our socio-demographic measures are significantly associated with trustworthy local government councillors. We do not find any correlation between our ethnic fractionalization measure and views about the trustworthiness of local councillors. We also do not find any relationship between whether respondents belong to a minority ethnic group and views about the trustworthiness of local councillors. There is no evidence that respondents who are members of a ruling family are more likely to see local government councillors as trustworthy. Further, there is no association between whether a respondent supports the ruling party, the APC, and their beliefs about local councillors’ trustworthiness. All together, these finding directly challenges historical accounts of ethnicity and party affiliation as the main driver of citizens socializing practices and beliefs (Kandeh, 1992; Reno, 1995). They are also consistent with recent analyses suggesting that ethnic and partisan politics might be less relevant for local elections, where development issues seem to play a more prominent role in shaping the linkages between voters and politicians (Srivastava and Larizza, 2011; Zhou, 2009).<sup>16</sup>

> 15Ward committees are the key formal mechanism (as mandated by the law) to channel citizens views to the councils. It is also the forum to communicate development plans at the village level. In this respect the Ward Committees represents an essential channel for upward and downward communication in Sierra Leone. However, evidence from fieldwork research and focus group discussions consistently found that the frequency of ward committees meetings is usually hampered by mobility constraints across scattered communities as well as by lack of funds. This might explain the low response rates in the NPS, as well as the the absence of an association between indicators of ward committee outreach and beliefs about the perceived trustworthiness of councillors.

> 16For example, a household survey carried out by the Institutional Reform and Capacity Building Project (IRCBP) in 2009 (Bonthe and Bombali districts) asked people their main reasons for voting. The survey found that in national elections participants ranked the political party as the most important and development as a second priority; for local elections the promise of development was the priority (Zhou, 2009).

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