This article considers the problem of fostering confidence in institutions in a post-war context. Situated in post-war Bosnia, this article examines interactions between citizens and representatives of municipal governments on newly established local planning committees to demonstrate that an individual's confidence in an institution and his/her trust in a social intimate who works in that institution are sociologically different phenomena with correspondingly different outcomes for institution building. Contrary to the assumption that increased social capital and interpersonal trust positively affect democratic institutions, this article shows that interpersonal trust may actually undermine the development of institutional confidence.
By exploring the role of cultural associations, different forms of political participation, and mass media on opposite sides of the old Italo-Yugoslav boundary, this article links opposing interpretations of the past to differences in state institutions and reconfigured social groups. Striking differences in how narrators remember episodes of past violence over time point to contentious processes of state formation after wars and to the impact of institutionalized commemorative practices on individual memory.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.