Conferences

In the recent decades, protest participation has emerged as one of the most widely accepted and practiced form of citizen engagement in the West. Many students of democracy believe that protest participation is critical for a well-functioning and stable democracy and research suggests that protest participation is one of the main characteristics of a democratic public. Studies have also shown that the frequency of protest participation is on the increase in established democracies, while protest engagement in postcommunist democracies is in decline. On the other hand, there has been a general decline in trust in public institution in both old and new democracies. The aim of our research is to analyze the role that trust in public institutions plays in protest potential in western and postcommunist EU democracies. We analyzed the newest (2008) wave of European Values Study, which consists of representative national surveys carried out in European countries. The results indicated that at the compound sample trust in institutions was positively associated with protest potential (signing a petition, joining in boycotts, attending lawful demonstrations, joining unofficial strikes, and occupying buildings and factories). When the data was broken down according to political history (established versus postcommunist democracies), somewhat different patterns of associations emerged. Specifically, in almost half of postcommunist countries the association was negative, while the same result was found among less than a third of established democracies. In addition, only one postcommunist country (Romania) and one established democracy (the Netherlands) showed a positive association between trust and protest engagement. The results attest to the importance of taking into account historical and national contexts when analysing the relevance of institutional trust for protest potential. Implications of the results and future research suggestions are discussed.