Trust in Institutions Between Objective and Subjective Determinants: A Multilevel Analysis in European Countries

Isabella Mingo () and Maria Paola Faggiano ()
Additional contact information
Isabella Mingo: Sapienza University of Rome
Maria Paola Faggiano: Sapienza University of Rome

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2020, vol. 151, issue 3, No 3, 815-839

Abstract: Abstract Trust is an essential element for effective social cohesion and a correct expression of the principles of representative democracy. In many countries of the Western world, we are witnessing the advance of anti-establishment political movements and a steady decline of trust in institutions. Crisis, perception of crisis, climate of opinion around it have an impact on political attitudes and diversified feelings (interest, trust, resentment), on political participation and on voting. Social analysts are called to deepen the reasons for the variability of these phenomena according to socio-cultural contexts and individual characteristics. The main aim of this paper is to analyse: (1) if and how much the spread of trust in institutions is different among the EU citizens and (2) what are the determinants of trust, deepening the intensity and the direction of the relationships with subjective and objective indicators. Our purpose is to outline the differences among the EU countries regarding trust in national and international institutions, simultaneously considering macro (country) and micro (individual) level of analysis by using a multilevel approach. The empirical analysis is based on the data collected by European Social Survey (ESS-Round 8) in 2016 (microdata) and on some variables (macrodata) taken from other statistical sources (Eurostat, Transparency International). The sample of individuals counts about 37 thousand subjects. Data analysis includes the construction of synthetic indices, using appropriate synthesis methods, and the identification of the determinants of Trust in Institutions, considering both micro and macro level explanatory variables, resorting to Multilevel Regression.

Keywords: Trust in political institutions; Objective/subjective determinants; Political sophistication; Multilevel regression models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-020-02400-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:151:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02400-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02400-0

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().