Los determinantes y consecuencias de la desconfianza en México1

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relationship between interpersonal trust and the trust in different institutions as well as its involvement with sociodemographic and political culture-related variables and its connection with associativism. For this, 1993 and 2000 national surveys where used. The results show that there is independence between interpersonal trust and the trust in institutions, because they are built by different processes. There is also a slight relationship between sociodemographic variables and political values or ideology. Interpersonal trust is linked with active participation in associations, which may point out that it is associated to specific forms of social organization. On the other hand, trust in institutions seems to respond more to the behavior of the political system, its performance, and how it is evaluated. Besides, it appears that the trust is influenced by age or place of residence. Older persons and those living in small villages are associated with conservatism. Non-political institutions (such as religion, unions, etc.) could be affected by policy performance.