Trust in institutions is necessary for the well functioning of modern democracies and the maintenance of institutional arrangements. The euro crisis has been identified by several scholars as a major factor contributing to falling trust in various European institutions.[1] In a recent article we have investigated whether, as a result of the crisis, trust has declined equally across European countries, and whether the decline varies among individuals with different socioeconomic backgrounds.[2]
More precisely, we have addressed these questions, first, by investigating whether trust in the European Parliament (EP) declined between 2002 and 2012 in twenty European Union countries; second, by ascertaining whether the decline was steeper in those peripheral countries that were hit hardest by the crisis - i.e. Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Cyprus, Greece and Spain - and third, by asking whether, in these countries, individuals from less privileged social strata (the unemployed, the retired, the poorly educated, those from low-income households, the youth and the elderly) were more likely to mistrust the EP, especially after the onset of the economic crisis.
A growing gap in trust between social strata would be worrying, as it would indicate that the economic crisis strengthened the link between social and political inequalities, potentially leading to the alienation from the political world of the most disadvantaged citizens - or worse, to anti-democratic mobilization driven by anti-establishment populist parties.
