IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/polstu/v58y2010i1p143-166.html

Does Power Drive Out Trust? Relations between Labour Market Actors in Sweden

Author

Listed:
  • PerOla Öberg
  • Torsten Svensson

Abstract

Although power and trust are crucial to human cooperation, and considerable attention has been paid to both these concepts in the social sciences, the relationship between them has been poorly investigated. In this article, based on data about a complete network of labour market actors in Sweden, it is investigated whether power ‘drives out trust’ or if power is a requirement of trust. In contrast to previous research, the article concludes that there is a positive relationship between power and trust, although it levels out when power is at a very high level. Also in disagreement with previous findings, it is shown that symmetry in power relations is not a guarantee of trust: two actors with symmetric low power do not trust each other, at least not in this specific institutional setting. Moreover, the theoretical argument is developed and refined by showing that shared beliefs and group membership also have an independent impact on trust, as well as a perception that the other actor is pursuing the common good. Hence, the presumed negative impact of power on trust is not only neutralised, but also transformed into a positive impact in the social context investigated here. However, more research is needed to show whether this finding is true only within certain institutional settings and, if so, within which ones.

Suggested Citation

  • PerOla Öberg & Torsten Svensson, 2010. "Does Power Drive Out Trust? Relations between Labour Market Actors in Sweden," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58(1), pages 143-166, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:58:y:2010:i:1:p:143-166
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2008.00772.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2008.00772.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2008.00772.x?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. Arai, Kazuhiro & Oskarsson, Sven & Yamauchi, Isamu & Oberg, Perola & Svensson, Torsten & Hirano, Shigemi, 2005. "The structure and determinants of trust : the cases of Japan and Sweden," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 46(2), pages 183-204, December.
    2. Williamson, Oliver E, 1993. "Calculativeness, Trust, and Economic Organization," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(1), pages 453-486, April.
    3. Iversen, Torben, 1998. "Wage Bargaining, Hard Money and Economic Performance: Theory and Evidence for Organized Market Economies," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 31-61, January.
    4. Bertil Holmlund & Donald Storrie, 2002. "Temporary Work In Turbulent Times: The Swedish Experience," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages 245-269, June.
    5. Jack Knight, 1998. "The Bases of Cooperation: Social Norms and the Rule of Law," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 154(4), pages 754-754, December.
    6. Henry Farrell & Jack Knight, 2003. "Trust, Institutions, and Institutional Change: Industrial Districts and the Social Capital Hypothesis," Politics & Society, , vol. 31(4), pages 537-566, December.
    7. David Dekker & David Krackhardt & Tom Snijders, 2007. "Sensitivity of MRQAP Tests to Collinearity and Autocorrelation Conditions," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 72(4), pages 563-581, December.
    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. James Alm & Erich Kirchler & Stephan Muehlbacher, 2012. "Combining Psychology and Economics in the Analysis of Compliance: From Enforcement to Cooperation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 133-152, September.

    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. Sven Oskarsson & Torsten Svensson & PerOla Öberg, 2009. "Power, Trust, and Institutional Constraints," Rationality and Society, , vol. 21(2), pages 171-195, May.
    2. Lijun Angelia Chen & Bruno Varella Miranda & Joe L. Parcell & Chao Chen, 2019. "The foundations of institutional-based trust in farmers’ markets," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(3), pages 395-410, September.
    3. John S. Heywood & W.S. Siebert & Xiangdong Wei, 2011. "Estimating the Use of Agency Workers: Can Family-Friendly Practices Reduce Their Use?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 535-564, July.
    4. Prince Hikouatcha & Alain Gilles Tagne Foka & Armand Depesquidoux Fossi & Simplice A Asongu, 2024. "Empirical investigation of the Fintech and financial literacy nexus: Small business managers’ insights in Cameroon," African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 219-237, February.
    5. Zakaria Babutsidze & Nobuyuki Hanaki & Adam Zylbersztejn, 2019. "Digital Communication and Swift Trust," Post-Print halshs-02409314, HAL.
    6. Marc A. Cohen, 2014. "Genuine, non-calculative trust with calculative antecedents: Reconsidering Williamson on trust," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 44-56, April.
    7. Lucio Biggiero & Enrico Sevi, 2009. "Opportunism by cheating and its effects on industry profitability. The CIOPS model," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 191-236, September.
    8. Anne Corcos & Yorgos Rizopoulos, 2011. "Is prosocial behavior egocentric? The “invisible hand” of emotions," Post-Print halshs-01968213, HAL.
    9. Alison L. Booth & Marco Francesconi & Jeff Frank, 2002. "Temporary Jobs: Stepping Stones Or Dead Ends?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages 189-213, June.
    10. Dezhong Duan & Qifan Xia, 2022. "From the United States to China? A trade perspective to reveal the structure and dynamics of global electronic‐telecommunications," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 823-847, June.
    11. Shi, Wei & Tang, Yinuo, 2015. "Cultural similarity as in-group favoritism: The impact of religious and ethnic similarities on alliance formation and announcement returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 32-46.
    12. Michael Windzio, 2025. "Limits of rationality? Moral foundations and polarization in attitudes towards diversity in Germany," Rationality and Society, , vol. 37(3), pages 273-299, August.
    13. Gunther Tichy, 2014. "Flexicurity – ein an seiner Umsetzung scheiterndes Konzept," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 87(8), pages 537-553, August.
    14. Jonathan Labbé, 2017. "Private Equity: Universality of financing and universality of effects on business innovation? A conceptual approach [Capital-investissement : Universalité du financement et universalité des effets sur l’innovation des entreprises ? Une approche co," Post-Print hal-03000109, HAL.
    15. Jens Hagendorff & Sonya Lim & Duc Duy Nguyen, 2023. "Lender Trust and Bank Loan Contracts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1758-1779, March.
    16. Aalia Cassim & Daniela Casale, 2018. "How large is the wage penalty in the labour broker sector?: Evidence for South Africa using administrative data," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-48, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Martin Mathews & Peter Stokes, 2013. "The creation of trust: the interplay of rationality, institutions and exchange," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(9-10), pages 845-866, December.
    18. Seung-Hyun Lee & Hee Jin Mun & Kyung Min Park, 2015. "When is dependence on other organizations burdensome? The effect of asymmetric dependence on internet firm failure," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(13), pages 2058-2074, December.
    19. Elisa Giuliani, 2010. "Clusters, Networks and Economic Development: An Evolutionary Economics Perspective," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Samuel Bentolila & Juan Jose Dolado & Juan F. Jimeno, 2019. "Dual Labour Markets Revisited," CESifo Working Paper Series 7479, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:polstu:v:58:y:2010:i:1:p:143-166. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0032-3217 .

    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.