To Trust or Not to Trust?

The economic and political changes in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism on the one hand, and a minor but strengthening distrust toward institutions and political actors in Western democracies have brought trust into the limelight of social and political sciences. This book tries to highlight the nature, the content, and the mechanisms of social and institutional trust in Central and Eastern Europe after the set-up of a new democratic political system and the institutions of Capitalism. The author does not only compare the levels of trust in the different Post-Communist countries and the changes of these levels in time, but tries to explore the design of institutional frameworks existing in the citizens' minds; the content and the structure of trust and trust-groups in the society; and the relationship between trust in strong ties, toward anonymous others, and toward democratic institutions. Thus, this book should be useful for students and professionals in the fields of trust-decisions, democratic changes, and institutional mechanisms, or for anyone else who is interested in how we trust our institutions and fellow citizens.