Trust In National Institutions Research Articles

41 Social and institutional trust: A comparison between non-associated and associated producers in Southeast Brazil

Abstract The social and institutional trust between two groups of dairy producers in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil was evaluated. The entity used in this comparison was the Rural Producers Association (RPA), in which two groups were formed: a) RPA members (AG); and b) RPA non-members (NAG). The questionnaire developed used model questions from the World Values Survey. Among a total of 38 producer-members of the RPA, 22 (58%) responded to the questionnaire. For the non-member producers, 44 were identified, while 39 (89%) responded to the questionnaire. To assess social trust, the following question was asked: "Generally speaking, would you say that people can be trusted or that we need to be very careful when dealing with people?". In AG, 81.8% of the producers responded that we need to be very careful when dealing with other people, and among the NAG producers, 87.2% also agreed with such a statement. Despite the lack of social trust in AG, 77.1% of the members fully or partially trust their association. To assess levels of trust in national institutions by producers, a question was asked as follows: "To what extent do you trust the institutions listed below?". For more than 50% of the NAG group, none of the institutions presented deserved full trust, reinforcing the lack of trust, as indicated in the previous question. For those in the NAG group that chose the option "I trust completely", the institutions opted were as follows: religious (46.2%), research institutions (43.6%), public universities (38.5%), and rural extension services (33.3%); while those opted as “I do not trust" were represented by political parties (82.1%), the municipal government (64.1%), and the national congress (61.5%). In the AG group, the institutions with the greatest levels of trust were the rural extension services (54.5%) and the RPA (54.5%), religious institutions (40.9%), public universities (40.9%), and research institutes 36.4%. Moreover, the institutions least trusted were political parties (63.6%), national congress (63.6%), municipal government (36.4%), and land organizations (36.4%). None of the producer groups were officially affiliated with political parties. An open-ended question was asked as follows: "What do you think about the current situation of the association, cooperative, or dairy in which you participate or commercialize milk with?" In the AG, 81.75% see RPA positively, and 18.25% believe that the association was in a bad situation and could even end. In the NAG, 59% of the producers commercialize milk in some type of organization (other than the RPA); in which among these, 43.47% have a negative image of such an organization in general. It is suggestive that regardless of the RPA participation, producers interviewed lack social trust. Future analysis is warranted to involve a multi-location and a broader population sampling.

Political Trust in South Asia

This study examines relative trust in national versus local institutions in South Asia using a tripartite framework that combines political and economic performance with religious identity to explain the three categories of relative trust that correspond to individuals whose trust in national institutions is stronger than, equal to, or weaker than their trust in local institutions. In particular, religious minorities in South Asia are often discriminated against and poorly represented at the national level but tend to cluster in local communities, which erodes their trust in national institutions but not necessarily in local institutions. The empirical analysis of two waves of South Asian Barometer surveys eight years apart produced consistent results which suggest that the religious segregation and discrimination in South Asian countries tilt relative trust patterns among religious minorities in favor of local institutions at the expense of national ones.

Decentralization and trust in government: Quasi-experimental evidence from Ukraine

Can decentralization of political powers increase trust in government? We present quasi-experimental evidence from Ukraine where political trust has been among the lowest levels worldwide. The national government devolved powers and resources to newly formed local governments (hromadas) between 2015 and 2020; this includes a substantial share of taxes on local incomes. We exploit local differences in the timing of the decentralization reform. Difference-in-differences estimations show that citizens in decentralized communities report more trust in local authorities and participate more often in local elections. The most likely mechanism is the democratic process of coming together to build new local communities. Local trust however does not spill over to trust in national institutions. The results may explain the strong role of hromadas in Ukraine’s resilience against the detrimental effects of the Russian invasion.

Perceived group discrimination and the integration paradox in stigmatized neighborhoods

ABSTRACT Residents of “European Banlieues,” or stigmatized neighborhoods in urban peripheries across Europe, are frequent targets of discrimination. Scholars have previously found evidence of an “integration paradox,” where the most integrated people with foreign backgrounds perceive the most discrimination. In this research note, we evaluate whether the integration paradox extends to migrant-origin residents of “Banlieues.” Using an original two-wave panel survey of those with foreign backgrounds from two of Sweden's most deprived neighborhoods, we evaluate which subsets are most likely to perceive the most group discrimination and whether perceived group discrimination matters for their political incorporation. Our findings indicate the presence of an integration paradox in these communities, where greater acculturation is associated with less integration and more perceived marginalization: native-born residents are consistently more likely than foreign-born ones to report group discrimination. Moreover, perceptions of group discrimination are not without political consequence: discrimination reduces trust in national institutions and in ordinary Swedes, and is associated with a weaker Swedish national identity. These findings highlight evidence of pockets of discrimination in diverse and disadvantaged neighborhoods in European welfare states, and point to the detrimental consequences of perceived systematic exclusion.

Economic Insecurity, Institutional Trust and Populist Voting Across Europe

AbstractThis study revisits the drivers of populist voting in Europe, focusing on the interplay between economic insecurity and institutional trust. Specifically, it examines the degree to which the decision to vote for a populist party is driven by economic insecurity, while explicitly accounting for the moderating role of two types of institutional trust: trust in national institutions and trust in the European Parliament. The paper tests this moderating effect primarily using the European Social Survey (ESS), but also combining it with data from the World Inequality Database (WID). It finds support for the view that trust in institutions moderates the effect of economic insecurity on populist voting, with greater trust associated with less populist voting, except for the most economically insecure members of the population, whose propensity to vote for populist parties is unaffected by institutional trust.

Lower Carbon, Stronger Nation: Exploring Sociopolitical Determinants for the Chinese Public's Climate Attitudes.

Although numerous studies have examined the Chinese public's attitudes towards climate change, few have shed light on how sociopolitical factors related to the policy and the state have shaped such attitudes. This constituted our research goal. Against the background of China's Dual Carbon Goals, a national survey (n = 1469) was conducted to investigate the relationships between climate attitudes and climate benefit perception, institutional trust, policy familiarity, nationalism, and environmental values. Findings showed that respondents shared a high score of nationalism and a high level of trust in Chinese institutions. Their national benefit perception of climate action, nationalism, and trust in national institutions were strong determinants of their attitudes towards climate change. The findings suggested that for many Chinese, a lower-carbon future will be accompanied by a coming stronger nation, which is a key driver for people to adopt positive attitudes towards addressing climate change. As such, the current study revealed an alternative landscape of the determinants underlying people's attitudes towards climate change. To our knowledge, this is the first scholarly effort in China to empirically demonstrate the predictive role of nationalistic value in shaping climate attitudes and is one of the earliest efforts in climate communication to test the impact of the policy on such attitudes.

A Year of Pandemic: Levels, Changes and Validity of Well-Being Data from Twitter. Evidence from Ten Countries

In this article we describe how well-being changed during 2020 in ten countries, namely Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, South Africa, and Spain. Our measure of well-being is the Gross National Happiness (GNH), a country-level index built applying sentiment analysis to data from Twitter. Our aim is to describe how GNH changed during the pandemic within countries, to assess its validity as a measure of well-being, and to analyse its correlates. We take advantage of a unique data-set made of daily observations about GNH, generalized trust and trust in national institutions, fear concerning the economy, loneliness, infection rate, policy stringency and distancing. To assess the validity of data sourced from Twitter, we exploit various sources of survey data, such as Eurobarometer and consumer satisfaction, and big data, such as Google Trends. Results indicate that sentiment analysis of Tweets an provide reliable and timely information on well-being. This can be particularly useful to timely inform decision-making.

Post-traumatic Growth Dimensions Differently Mediate the Relationship Between National Identity and Interpersonal Trust Among Young Adults: A Study on COVID-19 Crisis in Italy.

BackgroundIn Italy, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a collective trauma. Post-traumatic growth (PTG) has been defined as the subjective experience of positive psychological changes as a result of a traumatic event. PTG can involve changes in five psychological main dimensions: relating to others, new possibilities, personal strength, spiritual change, and appreciation of life. In the context of national emergencies, those PTG dimensions encompassing changes at the social level (e.g., relating to others) can play a role in coping strategies that involve a renewed sense of self and one’s social identities, including national identities, and in turn, foster a stronger sense of trust and connection to others.AimTo investigate how each of the five PTG dimensions mediates the association between the salience of national identity and interpersonal trust in a sample of Italian young adults. Trust in national and European institutions were expected to positively predict the strength of the Italian national identity which in turn was expected to be positively associated with interpersonal trust, and the PTG relating to others dimension to mediate this association.MethodThis study involves the secondary analysis of data from a representative sample of 2,000 Italian young adults (age range 18–34 years). Participants completed a web survey during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in Italy with measures of trust in EU and national institutions, national identity, interpersonal trust, and the PTG Inventory. Structural equation modeling procedures were employed for key hypotheses tests.ResultsTrust in national institutions positively predicted national identity, which in turn was positively associated with interpersonal trust. Evidence of a full mediation effect of the PTG relating to others dimension on the association between national identity and interpersonal trust was found.DiscussionFindings contribute to clarify the psychological responses to collective traumas. In the context of Italy’s COVID-19 crisis, trust in national institutions reinforced Italian national identity, which was in turn associated with greater interpersonal trust, but only when psychological responses to the trauma involved changes in how individuals perceived and related to others, and not merely a focus on the self. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Regional inequality and institutional trust in Europe

AbstractInequality is a central explanation of political distrust in democracies, but has so far rarely been considered a cause of (dis‐)trust towards supranational governance. Moreover, while political scientists have extensively engaged with income inequality, other salient forms of inequality, such as the regional wealth distribution, have been sidelined. These issues point to a more general shortcoming in the literature. Determinants of trust in national and European institutions are often theorized independently, even though empirical studies have demonstrated large interdependence in citizens’ evaluations of national and supranational governance levels. In this paper, we argue that inequality has two salient dimensions: (1) income inequality and (2) regional inequality. Both dimensions are important antecedent causes of European Union (EU) trust, the effects of which are mediated by evaluations of national institutions. On the micro‐level, we suggest that inequality decreases a person's trust in national institutions and thereby diminishes the positive effect of national trust on EU trust. On the macro‐level, inequality decreases country averages of trust in national institutions. This, however, informs an individual's trust in the EU positively, compensating for the seemingly untrustworthiness of national institutions. Finally, we propose that residing in an economically declining region can depress institutional trust. We find empirical support for our arguments by analysing regional temporal change over four waves of the European Social Survey 2010–2016 with a sample of 209 regions nested in 24 EU member states. We show that changes in a member state's regional inequality have similarly strong effects on trust as changes in the Gini coefficient of income inequality. Applying causal mediation techniques, we can show that the effects of inequality on EU trust are largely mediated through citizens’ evaluations of national institutions. In contrast, residing in an economically declining region directly depresses EU trust, with economically lagging areas turning their back on European governance and resorting to the national level instead. Our findings highlight the relevance of regional inequality for refining our understanding of citizens’ support for Europe's multi‐level governance system and the advantages of causal modelling for the analysis of political preferences in a multi‐level governance system.

평창동계올림픽 후 레거시 효과가 국가기관 신뢰, 자주적 관여, 장소애착에 미치는 영향

평창동계올림픽 후 레거시 효과가 국가기관 신뢰, 자주적 관여, 장소애착에 미치는 영향

How trust in EU institutions is linked to trust in national institutions: Explaining confidence in EU governance among national-level public officials

This article analyzes the link between trust in national institutions and trust in European Union-level institutions among national public officials. Previous research has mainly looked at citizens; in contrast, little is known about the views national officials actually hold towards European Union-level institutions or how much confidence they place in them. Our study draws on a unique survey of 670 officials in 17 European Union member states who are involved in civil protection, a policy area which has recently emerged as one of the most important in the Union. Three mechanisms are explored: a ‘transference’ mechanism; a ‘trust syndrome’ mechanism and a ‘rational evaluation’ mechanism. Our findings confirm the existence of all three mechanisms and show that if European Union institutions are to be trusted to manage European Union-wide crises, then national institutions must be trusted too. This has far-reaching implications for the prospects of enhanced cooperation among civil-protection institutions in the European Union.

National Resilience: A New Self-Report Assessment Scale.

The current paper presents a new self-report national resilience assessment scale (NRAS). The scale was constructed and validated using a sample of 1022 Jewish Israeli adults. The internal structure of the 25-item was determined by a Varimax factor analysis, which emitted four distinct factors pertaining to identifying with the state, solidarity and social justice, trust in national institutions and trust in public justice; which explained 61% of the variance. These factor scores were validated against two national resilience promoting factors (community resilience and sense of coherence), and two national resilience suppressing factors (distress symptoms and sense of danger); as well as four demographic characteristics (level of religiosity, political attitudes, income and level of exposure to terror/ war experiences in the last year). Results supported the validity of the NRAS and its four components, showing that it was consistently correlated with resilience promoting and resilience suppressing factors.

Trust in the European Union: Effects of the information environment.

Over the past decade, the European Union has lost the trust of many citizens. This article investigates whether and how media information, in particular visibility and tonality, impact trust in the European Union among citizens. Combining content analysis and Eurobarometer survey data from 10 countries between 2004 and 2015, we study both direct and moderating media effects. Media tone and visibility have limited direct effects on trust in the European Union, but they moderate the relation between trust in national institutions and trust in the European Union. This relation is amplified when the European Union is more visible in the media and when media tone is more positive towards the European Union, whereas it is dampened when media tone is more negative. The findings highlight the role of news media in the crisis of trust in the European Union.

Corruption and Trust in the European Union and National Institutions: Changes over the Great Recession across European States

AbstractDoes corruption influence trust in national institutions in the same way as trust in international institutions? Did this influence change over the economic crisis 2008? Using data from the European Social Survey, we examined the association between corruption and trust in national and European parliaments before and after the start of the Great Recession 2008. We found that over the Crisis, the effect of corruption on trust in national parliament became more negative than it was before 2008. We also discovered a positive association between corruption and trust in the EU before the Crisis. That is, states with a higher level of national corruption seem to have more trust in international institutions, such as the EU. However, this relationship disappears after 2008. Our findings contribute to the debates on the impact of corruption on trust in national and international institutions, and on the consequences of the Great Recession.

Origins of reform resistance and the Southern European regime

With a particular interest for Southern Europe, this contribution develops a classification of obstacles to economic policy reforms. This classification covers approaches ranging from classical economics and political-economic explanations to more innovative explanations linked to behavioral economics. The subsequent part analyzes qualitatively and quantitatively to which extent the “Southern European regime” may imply a particular relevance of some of the potential reform obstacles classified before. We derive “reform ability profiles” which quantify several of the reform obstacles (or reform drivers) to compare EU countries in their likely reform predisposition. These profiles confirm particular Southern European weaknesses which tend to reduce the political-economic feasibility of long-term reforms: a low effectiveness in poverty protection, high intertemporal discounting and uncertainty avoidance, a poor information level of the population and deeply shattered trust in national institutions. In a microeconometric analysis based on Eurobarometer survey data, the analysis leaves the highly aggregated level and looks into the individual heterogeneity in reform acceptance. It is shown that several of the reform obstacles identified in theory are also empirically correlated with the individual inclination to accept reforms.

Trust in national institutions and macroeconomic conditions

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.

Personal values and trust of Europeans in national and EU institutions

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.

Does the Confidence in the EU Spill Over to the National Level? A Longitudinal Analysis of Political Trust in Central Europe

The EU enlargement brought about a series of institutional changes in the new member-states. This article shows how the EU also shapes citizens' attitudes towards their domestic political institutions. Using survey data from the Candidate Countries and Standard Eurobarometers (2002–06), we show that political trust in national institutions in Central Europe is the effect of trust in the EU and of the expectations projected onto the evolution of the national economies. Such determinants got stronger after EU accession, thus supporting our central argument, according to which we witness a third phase in the formation of attitudes towards institutions in post-communist Europe. Keeping to these lines, our study sheds new light on the patterns and origins of political trust formation, showing that a transfer of legitimacy is possible not only from a national to a supranational level, but also in the reverse direction.

Economic Expectations, Optimistic Bias, and Television Viewing During Economic Recession

We examine the relationship between TV viewing and economic expectations during economic recession. A content analysis of 84 hours of local network primetime programming (news and nonnews) identifies a moderate bias toward economic pessimism in the broadcasts. A survey of the adult population ( N = 356) points at a significant positive relationship between TV viewing (total viewing and viewing of news programming) and economic pessimism at both the national and the personal levels. A similar relationship exists between TV viewing and optimistic bias—the tendency to be more pessimistic on economic matters at the national than at the personal level. These results remain significant when controlled for demographics, trust in national institutions, evaluation of current economic situation and consumption of media other than TV, and corroborate a second-order cultivation effect in the economic context.

Institutional trust and multilevel government in the European Union: Congruence or compensation?

Does trust in national institutions foster or hinder trust in the institutions of the European Union (EU)? There is no agreement in the literature on popular support for the EU about the direction of the relationship between trust in national and European institutions. Some scholars argue that both will be positively related, others have proposed the opposite hypothesis: low levels of trust in national institutions will lead citizens to higher levels of support for the EU. We argue that both hypotheses are true but operate at different levels: whereas more trusting citizens tend to be so in both the national and the European arenas, we also find that at the country level the relationship is negative: living in a country with highly trusted and well-performing institutions hinders trust in the European Parliament. We test our hypotheses using data from the European Social Survey and Hierarchical Linear Modeling.