Socio-economic vulnerability, structural violence and the trust crisis in the EU

In this report, in the framework of Work Package 3 (WP3) of RE-InVEST, we investigate the impact of the recent economic crisis on institutional trust in European societies. In our study, we are guided by four main research questions: (1) How has public trust in political institutions evolved in European countries in the period before and after the outbreak of the economic crisis in 2008? (2) Can we observe different patterns of institutional trust between countries and can these patterns be explained by differences in policy shifts and differences in the resilience of society? (3) Are the observed trends in institutional trust driven by changes in economic conditions and vulnerability due to crisis? (4) Does the crisis affect institutional trust across the entire spectrum of the population, or the crisis effects are instead contingent on the socio-economic position of an individual? In order to answer these questions, we performed descriptive analyses of the evolution of institutional trust in six political institutions over time, using six waves of the European Social Survey (ESS) data. Following that, we conducted a multilevel analysis of trust in national parliaments and the European Parliament. Our findings suggests that the recent economic crisis had not only economic but also political and social costs to the European societies. In particular, as a consequence of the recent economic crisis, institutional trust in Southern European countries has fallen to dramatic levels. Specifically, in Greece, Portugal and Spain, the effect of the economic crisis on public trust in political institutions is especially prominent. Moreover, institutional distrust tend to be prevalent among the disadvantaged groups in the population. Furthermore, European countries with more established welfare states tend to be more resilient to the negative effect of the economic crisis on public trust. The results of the analyses indicate the need to consider the impact of the economic crisis not only in reference to economic costs but also in reference to declining levels of political trust and social cohesion of European societies.