INSTITUTIONAL TRUST IN THE CASE OF CROATIAN REGIONS

Abstract

Institutions and institutional trust can be marked as important determinants of (regional) growth and development in contemporary literature. Aim of this paper is to analyse institutional trust in two Croatian counties and to compare those results with earlier theoretical findings. The methodology consists of in-depth interviews made by survey of counsellors or some of leading functions in two Croatian counties. The results are mostly in accordance with earlier theory findings of institutional trust for Croatian level, i.e. the highest level of institutional trust was related with traditional values, for instance in family, while in some institutions trust varied and had a gap in level of respondents trust, depending of their own experience, for instance in self-government and educational system. At very low level of institutional trust were for instance, political parties and Government. As singled out, some of the main obstacles in achieving high levels of institutional trust were corruption, inconsistency in decision-making and enforcement, non- compliance, slow and complicated procedures, non-transparency, politization. Trust in institutions according to the results, impacts reduction and regulation of uncertainty in the economy. These results could be very worth and a certain guide for policy makers and their future decision-making.