Where is Trust? A focus on trust in institutions. A cross-national comparison in Europe

In many countries of the Western world, we are witnessing the advance of anti-establishment political movements and a steady decline of trust in institutions. Social analysts are called to deepen the reasons of the variability of this phenomenon according to socio-cultural contexts and individual characteristics. The main aim of this contribution is to outline the differences among the EU countries regarding trust in national and international institutions. The concept of trust is declined in three principal dimensions: politics, security and justice. The empirical analysis is based on the last data collected by European Social Survey (ESS-Round 8) in 2016. From a methodological point of view, the analyses are carried out both on microdata (single individuals) and on macrodata (national level). The sample counts about 40 thousand subjects interviewed face to face. According to the literature on this issue, the interpretative keys are: generation, cultural identity and political sophistication. Data analysis includes: the construction of synthetic multivariate indices and the application of generalized linear models.