engleski

Determinants of generalized trust: University students in Croatia

The paper aims at examination of level, distribution and main determinants of generalized trust among university students in Croatia. Generalized trust is a particular form of social trust that transcends trust relations with familiar and close people and refers to person’s expectation or belief that strangers or most members of our society do not intend to behave or act adversely in social interactions. High level of generalized trust, according to many authors, is socially important because it implies low transactional costs in everyday life and is characterized by significant democratic potential. The theoretical framework consists of two main approaches to generalization of social trust. The first is social capital and the second institutional perspective. According to social capital theory, trust is generalized bottom-up which means that density and liveliness of civic participation and civility create generalized trust, thus improving the efficiency of society by facilitating spontaneous cooperation (Putnam, 1993). Institutionalist approach, on the other hand, emphasizes the role of institutional (democratic) performance and trustworthiness for trust building among people. The results of quantitative study conducted in 2010 are presented. The sample encompasses 2000 full-time students of all seven public universities in Croatia. According to previous foreign and domestic general population studies, it is expected that generalized trust among young people is relatively low and that social capital and institutional trust are both positive and significant predictors. Also, the analysis examines correlation of generalized trust and students’ social and demographic characteristics. The results show that generalized trust is significantly and positively formed by institutional, specifically, political trust and that the positive impact of students’ social capital in this regard is to some extent deficient.

generalized trust; social capital; institutional trust; university students; Croatia.

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