IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v14y2013i4p542-565.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In Europe we trust? Exploring three logics of trust in the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Eelco Harteveld
  • Tom van der Meer
  • Catherine E De Vries

Abstract

This study develops and tests three explanations of trust in the European Union. Following the logic of rationality, trust originates from evaluations about the (actual and perceived) performances and procedures of the European Union. Trust within the logic of identity trust depends on citizens’ emotional attachments to the European Union. According to the logic of extrapolation, trust is an extension of national trust and therefore unrelated to the European Union itself. We test these explanations and their interrelations in a multilevel analysis of Eurobarometer 71.3 and conclude that the logic of extrapolation is the strongest predictor of trust in the European Union. Although we also find some evidence to suggest that rational calculus matters, by-and-large, citizens seem to trust or distrust the European Union for reasons that are largely distinct from the Union itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Eelco Harteveld & Tom van der Meer & Catherine E De Vries, 2013. "In Europe we trust? Exploring three logics of trust in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(4), pages 542-565, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:14:y:2013:i:4:p:542-565
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116513491018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116513491018
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116513491018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hooghe, Liesbet & Marks, Gary, 2009. "A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Miller, Arthur H., 1974. "Political Issues and Trust in Government: 1964–1970," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(3), pages 951-972, September.
    3. Luke Keele, 2007. "Social Capital and the Dynamics of Trust in Government," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(2), pages 241-254, April.
    4. Sara B. Hobolt, 2012. "Citizen Satisfaction with Democracy in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(S1), pages 88-105, March.
    5. Rajdeep Grewal & Joseph A. Cote & Hans Baumgartner, 2004. "Multicollinearity and Measurement Error in Structural Equation Models: Implications for Theory Testing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 519-529, June.
    6. Easton, David, 1975. "A Re-assessment of the Concept of Political Support," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 435-457, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ioannou, Demosthenes & Jamet, Jean-Francois & Kleibl, Johannes, 2015. "Spillovers and euroscepticism," Working Paper Series 1815, European Central Bank.
    2. Daniel L. Nielson & Susan D. Hyde & Judith Kelley, 2019. "The elusive sources of legitimacy beliefs: Civil society views of international election observers," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 685-715, December.
    3. Henning Schmidtke, 2019. "Elite legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations in the media: Patterns and explanations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 633-659, December.
    4. Gustavo Gouvêa Maciel & Luís de Sousa, 2018. "Legal Corruption and Dissatisfaction with Democracy in the European Union," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 653-674, November.
    5. Bernd Schlipphak, 2015. "Measuring attitudes toward regional organizations outside Europe," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 351-375, September.
    6. Thyen, Kressen, 2018. "Why It Matters What We Do: Arab Citizens' Perceptions of the European Union after the 2011 Uprisings," GIGA Working Papers 312, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    7. Leena K. Koivusilta, 2018. "Country-Level Investment in Cultural Opportunity Structures. A Potential Source of Health Differences Between 21 European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 1091-1118, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caroline Mcevoy, 2016. "The Role of Political Efficacy on Public Opinion in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(5), pages 1159-1174, September.
    2. Ken Ka-wo Fung & Chao-Lung Liu & Ming-Lun Chung, 2022. "Bowling Alone in Taiwan? Political Trust and Civic Participation of Taiwanese and Their Appraisal of Liberal Democracy and Personal Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 1085-1102, February.
    3. Nicholas J Clark & Robert Rohrschneider, 2019. "The relationship between national identity and European Union evaluations, 1993–2017," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 384-405, September.
    4. Julian Aichholzer & Sylvia Kritzinger & Carolina Plescia, 2021. "National identity profiles and support for the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 293-315, June.
    5. Soetkin Verhaegen & Marc Hooghe & Ellen Quintelier, 2014. "European Identity and Support for European Integration: A Matter of Perceived Economic Benefits?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, May.
    6. Luis Guirola & Gonzalo Rivero, 2022. "Polarization contaminates the link with partisan and independent institutions: evidence from 138 cabinet shifts," Working Papers 2237, Banco de España.
    7. Jae Young Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2020. "Examining the Moderation Effect of Political Trust on the Linkage between Civic Morality and Support for Environmental Taxation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Jae-Young Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2022. "Political Trust and Support for a Tax Increase for Social Welfare: The Role of Perceived Tax Burden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-12, June.
    9. Nicholas Clark & Robert Rohrschneider, 2021. "Tracing the development of nationalist attitudes in the EU," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 181-201, June.
    10. Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, 2019. "The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 581-606, December.
    11. Ann-Kathrin Reinl & Daniela Braun, 2023. "Who holds the union together? Citizens’ preferences for European Union cohesion in challenging times," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(2), pages 390-409, June.
    12. Sara B. Hobolt & Wouter Van der Brug & Claes H. De Vreese & Hajo G. Boomgaarden & Malte C. Hinrichsen, 2011. "Religious intolerance and Euroscepticism," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(3), pages 359-379, September.
    13. Barbara Dluhosch & Daniel Horgos & Klaus W. Zimmermann, 2016. "EU enlargement and satisfaction with democracy: a peculiar case of immiserizing growth," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 273-298, September.
    14. Skali, Ahmed & Stadelmann, David & Torgler, Benno, 2021. "Trust in government in times of crisis: A quasi-experiment during the two world wars✰," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 277-289.
    15. Frye, Timothy & Borisova, Ekaterina, 2016. "Elections, protest and trust in government: A natural experiment from Russia," BOFIT Discussion Papers 9/2016, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    16. Joost van Spanje & Claes de Vreese, 2011. "So what’s wrong with the EU? Motivations underlying the Eurosceptic vote in the 2009 European elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(3), pages 405-429, September.
    17. Xiwen Fu, 2018. "The Contextual Effects of Political Trust on Happiness: Evidence from China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 491-516, September.
    18. Anna Brosius & Erika J van Elsas & Claes H de Vreese, 2019. "How media shape political trust: News coverage of immigration and its effects on trust in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 447-467, September.
    19. Mujtaba Isani & Bernd Schlipphak, 2017. "In the European Union we trust: European Muslim attitudes toward the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(4), pages 658-677, December.
    20. Beaudonnet, Laurie and Danilo Di Mauro, 2012. "Support for Europe: Assessing the complexity of individual attitudes," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 16, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:14:y:2013:i:4:p:542-565. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.