This project evaluates the causes and consequences of declining trust in nonpolitical institutions in Western democracies. Nonpolitical institutions are defined as either private or government entities with a collective function that are not elected, do not legislate, and strive to maintain nonpartisanship. The focus is placed on trade unions, NGOs, judges, experts, and the media, and the work will proceed in two steps.
First, we will identify socioeconomic, political and geographic regularities of the trust crisis of nonpolitical institutions in Europe. Second, using survey experiments in various EU countries, we will evaluate the behavioral response of individuals to the same information when provided by different institutions.