National Identity and Political Trust

Abstract

Abstract This article set out to test the almost taken for granted assumption that a minimum form of cohesion amongst the members of society is needed in order for political institutions to exist over time. The problem is that it is rare to find any specifications of the content of the national cohesion to be effective. The debate goes from thin to thick forms of cohesion. We aim to test this idea by examining how two forms of collective national identity (ethnic and civic) affect individual political trust in 18 European countries. We conclude that a strong civic national identity has a positive impact on political trust whereas a strong ethnic national identity has a negative impact on political trust. Individual data comes from the European Social Survey 2004 (ESSII). Key Words: Political trustnational identityESSxenophobiaheterogeneity Notes 1 In Easton's (Citation1965) categorization there are three fundamental objects in the political system: the political authorities (e.g. state institutions and actors), the political community (e.g. the state) and the political regime (e.g. democracy). 2 Due to various definitions of national identity and political trust respectively, there is sometimes a discussion about the causal direction between these phenomena. But with our definitions it is more theoretically logical to expect the national identity (which is seen as a form of institutional context) to influence individuals' political trust rather than the other way around. 3 Davidov (Citation2009), makes a similar point about scalar invariance across countries in established measure in the ISSP, even though he is testing other indicators than the ones used in this case. 4 We are not trying to test the effect of instructional (endogenous) versus cultural (exogenous) explanations of political trust; we only acknowledge that performance related factors are expected to be of importance. These three variables produce a one factor solution in a component analysis in all the participating countries.