Comparative international surveys consistently show differences between Eastern and Western Europe with regard to the perceived trustworthiness of state agencies like courts, police, or civil services. This article explores the consequences of these differences for the life satisfaction of the common citizen. The analysis concentrates on the one hand on the hypothesis that a lack of trustworthiness of state agencies implies the risk of the abuse of power by these institutions, which has among others also direct negative consequences for the life satisfaction of the citizens. On the other hand, the article also pursues the hypothesis that trustworthy state institutions may buffer the citizens' risk of being deceived by non-trustworthy fellows, which obviously has an indirect positive impact on life satisfaction.
Using secondary analysis of survey data from the European Values Study (EVS), the article shows that the mentioned effects of institutional trustworthiness on life satisfaction differ by institution. It seems that the trustworthiness of the police mainly matters for the direct effects of the abuse of state power, whereas the trustworthiness of the civil service is relatively important for the buffering of distrust in fellow citizens. Based on quantitative information about these empirical regularities, the article finally makes conditional forecasts about the effects of changing trustworthiness of state agencies on the future life satisfaction in Eastern and Western Europe.
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Mueller, G.P. (2009). Trust and Life Satisfaction in Eastern and Western Europe. In: Møller, V., Huschka, D. (eds) Quality of Life and the Millennium Challenge. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 35. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8569-7_11
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