This document summarizes a study examining factors that influence institutional trust in Flanders, Belgium. The study analyzed data from two samples to explore how social background, social capital, and psychological factors like anomia and ethnocentrism impact trust in governmental institutions. Linear regression and structural equation models showed that social background and social capital were only weakly associated with trust. Anomia and ethnocentrism had a stronger mediating effect on the relationship between these factors and trust. Religious attendance did not influence trust through social capital or discontent. The study provides insight into differences and similarities between samples in predicting institutional trust.

1. Institutional trust in Flanders.
Do anomia and ethnocentrism mediate the relationship
between social background, social capital and institutional
trust?
An exploratory analysis in two samples.
Maarten Van de Velde (Ugent)
Prof. Dr. Lieven Pauwels (Ugent)
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

2. Introduction
• Last decades more and more reports of decrease in trust of citizens
in government
•Why is the study of institutional trust so important:
Democracy is undermined by perceived distrust
--> Crisis of legitimacy
-Especially the criminal justice system is encountered by the high
degree of distrust.
• « Social Cohesion » (conceptual swamp) is seen as a major predictor
•Few Belgian studies! Data exist but are often left unexplored!
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

3. Scope of this study
• Descriptive research question: How large are
individual differences in institutional trust?
• Explanatory aim of this study : Explaining
observed differences in trust from an
integrated sociological-psychological
theoretical perspective
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

4. Scope of this study
• Explanatory research question:
• What is the role of social capital, ethnocentrism and anomia as
moderators of the relation between social background and institutional
trust?
-> Are these mechanisms capable of fully mediating the effects of background
characteristics on trust?
Sociological: refers to the social environment: why is trust so different in
accordance with social-demographic background? (Especially with the
educational level- e.g. Elchardus, 2002)
Psychological: Refers to anomia and ethnocentrism (Peters, Schepers &
Felling, 1992)
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

5. Theoretical background
• Belgian tradition: discontent (cfr. A general
pessimistic world view) as unidimensional
metaconstruct covering anomia, authoritarianism and
ethnocentrism (Elchardus, 2002)
• Discontent cannot be seen as one single
metaconstruct. It is more important to refine
relationships between constructs from a theoretical
point of view (Peeters, Schepers, Felling)Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

6. Theoretical model
Social Background Social Capital Discontent Trust
Educational level
Religious
attendance
Sex
Age
Immigration
background
Participation in
organisations
Social ties
confidants
Political
powerlessness
Ethnocentrism
Trust in
governmental
institutions
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

7. Hypotheses
• Discontent as catalyst for the influence of
social background and social capital on trust?
• Two dimensions of discontent:
- Political powerlessness
- Ethnocentrism
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

8. A test on two samples
• Survey Social cultural Shifts in Flanders, 2002
(Ministry of the Flemish Community)
• European Social Survey, 2002. (Flanders)
(Jowell et al.)
-> Similarities and differences
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

9. Operationalisation of the theoretical
concepts (1)
• Structural background
- : Highest obtained degree
Educational level
- Religious attendance: Participation in religious (church)
services.
• Social capital
- Participation in organisations ( Elchardus)
- Embeddedness in « the social fabric » (Kasarda &
Janowitz, 1972)
- The number of people one can trust.
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

10. Operationalisation of the theoretical
concepts (2)
• Anomia
- Scale: e.g. Item: « To vote is of no use, eventually
the political parties just do what they want »
• Ethnocentrism
- Scale: e.g. Item: « Muslims form a threat for our
culture and customs »
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

11. Operationalisation of the theoretical
concepts (3)
• Institutional trust
- « Please tell me on a score of 0-10 how much you
personally trust each of the following institutions…? »
-> The criminal justice system, the Belgian Federal
Government, the Flemish government, the Belgian Federal
Parliament, the Flemish Parliament, the politicians, the
European Parliament, the United Nations Organisation, the
police.
- One overall trust scale: institutional trust ( <-> public
administration)
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

12. Reliability of the scales
Scale Cronbach’s Alpha (SCV)
survey
Cronbach’s Alpha (ESS)
Political Powerlessness .796 .630
Ethnocentrism .884 .831
Institutional trust .854 .886
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

13. Methodology
• Brief univariate descriptions of trust in the
different institutions
• Blockwise linear multiple (OLS) regression
analysis
• Critical test by means of structural equation
modelling
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

14. Trust in the different institutions
% Very low/low % Not low/not
high
% High/ very
high
N
SCV ESS SCV ESS SCV ESS SCV ESS
Criminal justice
system
41% 32,8% 35,8% 45,4% 23,1% 21,8% 1430 1205
Belgian federal
government
27,9% / 49,2% / 22,8% / 1436 /
Flemish
government
27,5% / 46,1% / 26,4% / 1440 /
Belgian federal
parliament
24,6% 22,1% 51,5% 44,0% 23,9% 33,8% 1423 1038
Flemish
parliament
24,3% / 50,8% / 25% / 1402 /
European
Parliament
/ 23,2% / 51,9% / 24,9% / 1108
United Nations
Organization
/ 22,1% / 44,0% / 33,8% / 1038
The Police / 14,0% / 39,3% / 46,7% / 1224
Belgian
Politicians
/ 27,7 / 54,5% / 17,8% / 1217
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

15. SCV- results
Participation in
organisations
Educational level
Religious attendance
Anomia
Institutional trust
Ethnocentrism
0.09
-0.02
1.00
-0.22
-0.09
-0.11
0.86
0.77-0.08
0.13
-0.30
0.37
0.90
-0.32
Chi-Square= 5.70, df=4, P-value= 0.22246, RMSEA= 0.018
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

16. ESS- Results
-0.02 Participation in
organisations
Social Ties
Educational level
Religious
attendance
0.07
-0.06
1.00
Institutional trust
Anomia
Etnocenrism
-0.09
0.08
-0.40
-0.10
-0.12
0.08
-0.11
0.32
0.83
0.78
-0.25
0.79
Chi-Square= 6.17, df= 5, P-value= 0.28961, RMSEA= 0.014
-0.27
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

17. Results
Dependent -> SCV-survey ESS-survey
Independent Trust Anomia Ethno-
centrism
Trust Anomia Ethno-
centrism
Anomia -.32 (.03) .37 (.02) -.25 (.02) .32 (.03)
ethnocentrism -.11 (.03) -.27 (.02)
Participation in
organisations
-- -.081 (.02) -- -- -.10 (.02)
Social ties -- -- .08 (.02) -.12 (.02) -.088 (.02)
Educational level -.09 (0.02) -.30 -.22 (.02) -.40 (.02) -.11 (.02)
Religious attendance .13 (.02) -- -- .075 (.02) -- --
Model evaluation
R² 14% 10% 23% 21% 22% 17%
RMSEA .014 .018
AGFI 0.99 0.99
CHI² 5.70 6.17
df 4 5
p-value 0.22 0.29
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

18. Conclusion and discussion
• There are small differences between both
samples. Similarities exceed differences. Social
background and social capital are at best very
indirect predictors of trust
• Religious attendance: the effect on trust is not
mediated by social capital nor discontent?
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana

19. Thank you for your attention
• Further information?
Maarten Van de Velde
msvdevel.vandevelde@ugent.be
Prof. Dr. Lieven Pauwels
Lieven.Pauwels@ugent.be
Research Group Social Analysis of Security
University of Ghent (Belgium)
www.sva.ugent.be
Maarten Van de Velde - Presentation
ESC 2009 Ljubljana