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

Thomas Persson, Charles F Parker and Sten Widmalm
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Thomas Persson: Department of Government, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Charles F Parker: Department of Government, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Sten Widmalm: Department of Government, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

European Union Politics, 2019, vol. 20, issue 4, 629-648

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Civil protection; European Union; institutional trust; public officials; social trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:20:y:2019:i:4:p:629-648

DOI: 10.1177/1465116519857162

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