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Trust in the institutions of the European Union: A cross-country examination

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  • Arnold, Christine, Eliyahu V. Sapir and Galina Zapryanova

Abstract

Trust in political institutions is one of the key elements which make representative democracies work. Trust creates a connection between citizens and representative political institutions. Democratic governments which enjoy a large degree of trust also tend to have higher degrees of legitimacy and policy efficacy. In Europe’s multi-level governance structure, it is imperative to understand the determinants of trust in the institutions of the European Union. With the increasing salience of the European Union, are domestic proxies still a key determinant of evaluating its institutions? Are there differences across the institutions and across the member states? We demonstrate that country-level corruption levels are what drives the relationship between domestic and European institutional trust. The majority of the variation in trust in the institutions of the European Union is, however, driven by individual-level predictors. We also find that individuals across Europe evaluate the institutions of the European Union through a single attitude dimension of political trust rather than through separate evaluations.

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  • Arnold, Christine, Eliyahu V. Sapir and Galina Zapryanova, 2012. "Trust in the institutions of the European Union: A cross-country examination," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 16, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:erp:eiopxx:p0233
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    Cited by:

    1. Suzuki, Taku & Mizobata, Satoshi, 2019. "Social Confusion and Corruption: Investigating the Causes and Effects of a Breakdown of Ethics," Discussion Paper Series 690_v2, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Goran Dominioni & Alberto Quintavalla & Alessandro Romano, 2020. "Trust spillovers among national and European institutions," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(2), pages 276-293, June.
    3. Sharon Baute, 2023. "Mass Euroscepticism revisited: The role of distributive justice," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 625-644, December.
    4. Femke Van Esch & Rik Joosen & Sabine van Zuydam, 2016. "Responsive to the People? Comparing the European Cognitive Maps of Dutch Political Leaders and their Followers," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 54-67.
    5. Roman Horvath & Dominika Katuscakova, 2016. "Transparency and trust: the case of the European Central Bank," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(57), pages 5625-5638, December.
    6. Vicente Royuela, 2020. "Construction of a Composite Index of European Identity," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 831-861, April.
    7. Elisabeth Beckmann & Sandra Dvorsky & Thomas Scheiber, 2013. "Trust in the EU in CESEE," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 2, pages 77-90.

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