Narratives of institutional trust: Turkish migrants’ comparative perspectives in Germany and Türkiye

Predictors of confidence and trust in government and institutions during the COVID-19 response in Australia

Introduction

The nature and effects of trust in social and political institutions have been studied in adults, but few studies have focused on how trust affects the political socialization of children and adolescents, who are in the process of developing their attitudes towards government and other social institutions. Data collected in 1999 from the IEA Civic Education Study of 14-year-olds are used to examine trust at three levels — trust in institutions with which individuals have little or no daily contact (those delegated as representatives in institutions such as the national legislature), trust in institutions with whose representatives individuals interact frequently (schools), and trust in other people. First, levels of these three types of trust are compared in six democracies whose levels of political stability vary (French-speaking Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, England and the United States). Second, correlates of individuals' levels of trust (including school climate and experiences with family) are examined. Third, trust, civic knowledge, school experiences, and family variables are used to predict levels of three types of civic or political engagement (voting, conventional political participation that goes beyond voting, and community participation). Levels of trust relate to the stability of democracy in the countries examined and to participation, suggesting a ‘threshold’ of trustworthiness that a political system needs to establish in order to foster civic and political participation in young people. Additionally, different types of civic engagement are influenced differentially by trust and by other aspects of experience in schools.

Compared to the scholarship on general political trust, relatively little attention has been paid to institutional trust. Research on the subject tends to treat political institutions as single entities, ignoring the fact that different institutions can enjoy, in the long term, very different levels of trust. This paper builds on the assumption that institutional trust may be formed differently depending on the institution type, and thus aims to explain how trust is formed in different types of democratic institutions. Moreover, it explains how the relationship between trust in a political institution and voter turnout can change depending on how trust is formed. The study is based on the content analysis of thirty semi-structured interviews from the Czech Republic. The study shows that respondents tend to develop trust in a political institution based on their assessment of the institution’s current performance and outcomes rather than their assessment of the institution itself. The study argues that an integral part of the concept of trust in a political institution is the popularity of the politicians who represent the institution. However, how trust is formed depends on the type of institution, which has important implications for measuring this concept. The relationship between institutional trust and turnout may also vary depending on how trust in an institution is formed. Thus, a potential correlation between trust in an institution and electoral participation may exist depending on the type of an institution.

This study looks at segregation across the high schools of Santiago, Chile, and the levels of trust students hold in key institutions. Confidence in government and private institutions, such as parliament, courts, government agencies, the Church, the media, banks and firms, is important to political and social stability and for maintaining social cohesion. The results from a survey of high school students are used to examine the links between segregation and levels of student trust in public and private institutions. Multi-level modelling is employed to derive estimates of student institutional trust and explore the within – and between-school components. The results show that there are significant levels of between-school variation in levels of trust in both public and private institutions. The between-school differences are largely explained by the effects of student socioeconomic status (SES), mean school SES, and type of school.

The arguable claims of levels of trust in politics and business situations motivated this study, which investigates the degree of trust within micro, small, and medium categories of Hungarian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies. Different sizes of companies have varying interactions between internal members and their business partners. This study concentrated on exploring Hungarian ICT companies due to their significant role in supporting Industry 4.0. The study population are active Hungarian ICT companies. This research implemented random cluster selection related to the location of ICT firms. It exploited 100 samples, including micro, small, and medium-sized companies, and implemented discriminant analysis to examine the description and hypotheses. First, this study found that the level of trust in institutions within micro, small, and medium-sized companies varies significantly. The level of trust in institutions proliferates within corporations due to the capability of the formal institution to provide fair public services. This research additionally underlined that the performance of the Hungarian government would improve trust amongst the companies. Second, this study concluded that the level of interpersonal trust within three categories of companies was similar. A high level of interpersonal trust would expand internal engagement among the members of companies. Finally, the level of trust in business partners varied significantly within the distinct sizes of Hungarian ICT companies. A high level of trust in corporate associates improves business collaboration, reduces uncertainty, and supports long-term business connections. Levels of institutional trust and inter-organizational trust differed amongst different categories of companies. However, the level of interpersonal trust remained similar within companies of the various sizes.

The paper elaborates influence of the personal values of Europeans on their trust in national and EU institutions. We confirmed the hypothesis that personal values have no effect on this trust with an exception of citizens’ attitudes towards democracy and tolerance. In the countries where democracy is a strong personal value citizens also demonstrate high trust in national institutions, on the other side in the countries where solidarity is high valued they demonstrate high trust in EU institutions. Furthermore, we confirmed that there are statistically significant differences in trust in institutions between citizens of the old and the new EU27 member states, as well as differences in countries with different types of legal systems. In majority of the new EU members citizens have higher trust in EU institutions, but lower trust in national institutions than the EU average. On the other side, the old EU members demonstrate higher trust in national institutions and much divided trust in EU institutions. We also indicated that characteristics of the national legal system influence citizens’ trust in national institutions, but they have no influence on trust in EU institutions. Countries with the Scandinavian national legal system demonstrate very high trust in national institutions, meanwhile trust in national institutions in post-socialistic countries is nearly three times lower.

Background Trust is described as the glue of healthy societies. Although Norway is among the countries with the highest levels of trust in public institutions, the increasing socioeconomic differences observed may threaten levels of institutional trust. Therefore, we aimed to investigate such differences in the general population between 2011 and 2019. Methods A repeated cross-sectional study was conducted using data on the general population in Østfold county from 2011 (N = 16673) and 2019 (N = 15935). Differences in trust toward five public institutions (healthcare system, school system, labour and welfare administration (NAV), police, and municipal council) by educational level were investigated with Chi-square tests. Logbinomial regression analyses were used to examine potential changes in high trust over time. Gender and age were included in the analyses as control variables. Results A relatively high proportion of the general population reported high levels of trust to the health care system (2011: 71%; 2019:80%), police (2011: 73%; 2019:77%), and the school system (2011: 64%; 2019:66%), whereas a lower proportion reported high levels of trust to NAV (2011: 37%; 2019:41%) and the municipal council (2011: 45%; 2019:36%). Both in 2011 and 2019 a clear social gradient in institutional trust was found for all institutions (p < 0.05). There was a significant increase in the level of trust in the health care system (low education:RR=1,10; middle:RR=1,12; high:RR=1.06) and a significant decrease in trust in the community council (low:RR=0,77; middle:RR=0,80; high:RR=0,83) in all educational groups from 2011 to 2019. The level of trust in NAV increased significantly in the highest education groups, while a non-significant decrease was shown in the low educational group. Conclusions The persisting social gradient in institutional trust is worrying as trust is an important factor in ensuring inclusion, social capital, democracy, and health and wellbeing. Key messages • Institutional trust is an important factor in ensuring inclusion, social capital, democracy, and health and wellbeing. • The lower levels of institutional trust found in low educational groups could be of particular concern as these groups might be more dependent on the different parts of the welfare system.

ObjectiveThis study examines whether a state's abundance of natural resource wealth, such as oil or gas, leads to lower levels of social and institutional trust than in countries that are not as “cursed” with resources.MethodsTo test this we use survey data from both the Afrobarometer survey (2008–2009) and comparable data on Latin America from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), using 44 countries, as well as subnational data from two large oil‐producing countries (Nigeria and Mexico).ResultsUsing multilevel logit analysis we find that individuals in countries that are oil and gas producers are less likely to exhibit high levels of social or institutional trust than individuals in countries that are not oil or gas producers. However, when examining oil‐producing regions within Nigeria and Mexico, we find that individuals in such regions tend to express relatively higher levels of individual social and institutional trust than regions that are not oil producers.ConclusionThese findings can be explained by the differential effects of oil and gas wealth—at the national level, oil and gas wealth promotes corruption and a general erosion of both institutional and interpersonal trust, especially for those who live in regions that do not directly benefit from oil and gas revenues. However, in regions within countries, people who reside in such regions are more likely to directly benefit from the economic spoils and patronage derived from resource revenues.

Confianza Institucional y Social: Una Relación Insoslayable

Belief in a just world mediates the relationship between institutional trust and life satisfaction among the elderly in China

Why American voters choose certain candidates over others is one of the more fascinating dynamics within the modern American political system. Indeed, voters' choices reveal more about the health of our democracy than any other indicator one could use to measure such an important institution. Further, while turnout rates and exit polls are used as proxies for the health of the American electorate, voter choice-and what motivates certain voters to vote the way they do-lies at the heart of understanding the factors that lead people to make political choices as they do.This research examined select variables associated with voter behavior and choice documented in the 2020 presidential election results. Select factors, including race/ethnicity, political party affiliation, gender, socioeconomic means, and trust in institutions and their impact on voter choice at the ballot box, were analyzed in the context of our most recent presidential election. Specifically, it was hypothesized that there would be gender, race/ethnicity, political party affiliation, and socioeconomic differences in levels of trust in public institutions and voter choice in the 2020 presidential election and that a higher level of distrust may manifest itself at the ballot box in predictive ways, mainly in higher levels of support for former President Donald J. Trump during the 2020 Presidential election for individuals. Three major findings emerged through the study, the most significant being that race/ethnicity, political party affiliation, gender, socioeconomic means, and trust in institutions predicted voter choice during the 2020 presidential election. The study also revealed that gender, race, income, and party affiliation are significant predictors of distrust in institutions. Furthermore, the study determined that significant relationships existed between race, income, and support for former President D. J. Trump and voter choice during the 2020 presidential election.--Author's abstract

This article examines the determinants of trust in religious institutions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia — three countries with low levels of religiosity as measured by attendance, prayer and fasting, yet high levels of trust in religious institutions. The analysis employs individual-level survey data and uses ordinary least squares regression to show that while religious practices do not determine trust in religious institutions, the importance of religion in one's daily life is a strong indicator of trust in religious institutions in each country. The results also show some differences among these countries with regard to two types of control variables — trust in secular institutions and socioeconomic factors. In Georgia, interpersonal trust is a significant indicator of trust in religious institutions. Residence in the capital is only significant in Azerbaijan. Finally, both education and age are significant in Armenia. Additionally, two theories of trust in institutions are tested. First, a cultural theory of interpersonal trust proves ambiguous in the region. Second, the presence of both low religious practice and high trust in religious institutions in these countries challenges reformulated secularization theories that consider declining religious authority — measured by trust in religious institutions — as a form of secularization.

One of most important effects of the recent economic crisis has been the decline of citizens’trust in political institutions. This effect was due to the inability of national governments and Parliaments to counteract the consequences of the reces sion. The lack of trust in institutions involves costs that cannot be underestimated. Therefore, for this reason, it is very important to study the relationship between changes in macroeconomic conditions and changes in the level of citizens’appreciation in national institutions. The aim of the paper is to analyse as changes in macroeconomic conditions (in particular, changes in inflation, unemployment and income inequality) have affected the level of citizens’trust in national institutions of European countries in the period 2001-20013. Using panel data method, empirical results show that the increases in unemployment and income inequality contribute to reduce the level of trust in national institutions while, as regards inflation, the results are ambiguous.

Establishing a relation based on trust between citizens and institutions leads to a good functioning of society and a legitimation of the political system. According to previous research (IRES, 2010, 2012, 2016, IMAS, 2011), Romanians– particularly youth, show low confidence in institutions, especially in politics. Why does this generate negative effects? If citizens have confidence in institutions, they can give a meaning to their civic and political involvement. When level of trust tends to be negative, the motivations to engage in civic or political actions will decrease based on the presumption that even if change is desired, the institutions will not allow it to happen. Thus, the paper aims to analyse the degree of students’ trust in public institutions and their civic/ political behaviour, in the context in which these indicators can influence – on medium and long term -, the type of political culture and the relationship between government and citizens. The study is based on a quantitative research conducted between December 2019 – January 2020 among students from three specializations within the Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania on a sample of 433 subjects, and had as main directions of analysis: the level of trust in public institutions, the forms of civic/ political involvement practiced by students, the ability to effect changes at high level. The results bring into attention that youth have limited trust in institutions and this fact can justify an apathy condition and insecurity regarding social and political change. At the same time, most students are unsatisfied by the Romanian democracy regime. The most common forms of civic and political involvement over the last year have been voting, signing petitions and participating in volunteer oriented work.