Type of Trust and Political Participation in Five Countries: Results of Social Quality Survey

Abstract

This article classifies types of trust by combining general trust, interpersonal trust, and institutional trust based on the hypothesis that individuals have different types of trust. The results of this article show different shapes of types of trust distribution in South Korea, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Also, multinomial logit analysis reveals that each type of trust is influenced by certain conditions. Four types (△distrust, △institution-oriented trust, △person-oriented trust, and △full trust) are drawn from latent class analysis. Age, monthly income, network, financial crisis experience, and participation in private association are proven to have a critical impact on types of trust. Analysis shows that South Korea, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Turkey have different distribution of types of trust. Institution-oriented trust, personoriented trust, and full trust type respectively account for about 25% in Germany. Turkey has a relatively higher percentage of institution-oriented trust type. In contrast, distrust type accounts for more than two-thirds in South Korea, Italy, and Greece. Finally, logit analysis was conducted to figure out the role of types of trust in four kinds of political participation (△online expression, △expressing one’s opinion toward governments or media, △participating in activities such as political campaigns, demonstrations, and strikes, and △voting) as dependent variables. The result shows that institution-oriented trust type people are more likely to participate in expressing their opinions toward governments or media and voting than distrust type. Also, personoriented trust type people are more likely to express their opinions toward governments or media and participate in political campaigns, demonstrations, and strikes than distrust type. Finally, full trust type people show higher presence in three non-institutional political participations.