Conferences

In resent research generalised trust is much discussed as a resource that facilitates economic exchange, political participation and government, and even fosters the welfare states viability. Countries with different levels of generalised trust are quite systematically spread across Europe. High generalised trust can be found in the Scandinavian, low levels in the eastern and middle European countries, other countries somewhere in between. However, what exactly are the reasons for this international differences in this important social resource, what are the country level characteristics?

The paper will explore the causes of varying levels of generalised trust adopting above all country level explanations, because the degree to which the variation of the dependent variable (generalised trust) can be explained on the country level, is (according to IKK) higher than regarding other research topics/ dependent variables. Especially the impact of political institutions and of the inclusiveness of welfare states usually are seen as the correlates of high generalised trust. The paper will test hypothesis on both country and individual level by multilevel regression using the European Social Survey data (2006) with additional country variables.