Ideological bases of institutional trust in eastern and western europe and the effect of motivated social cognition

Abstract

Our study investigates the assumption that citizens expect the democratic institutional system to operate in accordance with values and norms that are deeply embedded in public thinking of their country. As individual-level trust towards the institutional system is built mainly on these norms and values, our results show that differences between Eastern and Western European public thinking lead to asymmetries regarding the bases of institutional trust. Specifically, degree of income inequalities and perceived quality of welfare services seem to be more important factors in the postsocialist region in comparison with Western Europe. Furthermore, in accordance with the approach of motivated social cognition, we could also confirm that those with a higher level of conventionality motivation lean on normative ideological elements to a greater extent when they are indicating their personal level of institutional trust.

Determinants of institutional trust: the role of cultural context

“…The role of culture in an individual's institutional trust has received less attention. Although some studies have explored the source of institutional trust by considering a limited set of values (Yang and Tang, 2010;Dong and Kübler, 2018;Zhai, 2018), some cultural dimensions (Hadarics, 2016;Mahmud, 2017;Pitlik and Rode, 2017;Baniamin et al, 2020), ethnic minorities (Lühiste, 2006;Zmerli 2012;van der Meer and Hakhverdian, 2017) and having a communist background (Mishler and Rose, 2001;Hakhverdian and Mayne, 2012), we did not find any analysis incorporating some cultural theory with a whole range of dimensions covering various elements of culture.…”

“…The police, providing order and security, helps to overcome uncertainty in contexts with predominant values of adherence to norms and personal security (Hogg, 2000). In such contexts, institutions aiming to provide feelings of certainty and physical security are more likely to gain trust (Hadarics, 2016).…”

“…Empirical works have confirmed that individual-level evaluation of institutional performance (Berg and Hjerm, 2010; Dong and Kübler, 2018; Godefroidt et al ., 2017; Hadarics, 2016; Stoyan et al ., 2016; Yang and Tang, 2010; Zhai, 2018) and society-level indicators of good governance (Hooghe et al ., 2017; Newton and Zmerli, 2011) are positively related to different indicators of institutional trust. Some empirical studies have reported that institutional trust is negatively related to individual-level corruption perception (Anderson and Tverdova, 2003; Habibov et al ., 2017; Lühiste, 2006; Mishler and Rose, 2001, 2005).…”

“…Empirical evidence has indicated that institutional trust is positively related to individual-level social trust (Hadarics, 2016; Hakhverdian and Mayne, 2012; Newton and Zmerli, 2011; Zmerli, 2012) or interpersonal trust (Godefroidt et al ., 2017; Lühiste, 2006; Mishler and Rose, 2001).…”

“…In uncertainty-avoidant cultures, people are less trusting, and rules play an important role in offering assurance (Kaasa, 2015). There might be a higher need for order and structure (Hadarics, 2016), and formalisation is favoured over deregulation (Mahmud, 2017). Hence, in the case of higher uncertainty avoidance, institutions can be more supported (Hadarics, 2016; Mahmud, 2017).…”