The Effects of Economic Crisis on Trust: Paradoxes for Social Capital Theory
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The Effects of Economic Crisis on Trust: Paradoxes for Social Capital Theory Jordi Caïs1 · Diego Torrente1 · Catalina Bolancé2 Accepted: 15 May 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The theory of social capital rarely takes economic variables into account. This article confirms that economic factors had greater explanatory power for social trust and trust in institutions during times of economic crisis, due mainly to increased economic polarization of the population. We use Spain as a case study to analyse the impact of a number of variables on social and institutional trust before and during the economic crisis. The 2008 economic crisis in Spain resulted in a paradox: a notable decline in trust in institutions, together with a surprising increase—rather than the expected decrease—in social trust. The data analysed here also highlight the possibility that the two types of trust did not track in a mutually supportive manner due to the emergence of Movimiento 15 M, which gave rise to the appearance of new political parties such as Podemos, on the extreme left of the electoral scale. Keywords Social trust · Trust in institutions · Economic crisis · Political movements · Social capital
1 The Effects of Economic Crisis on Trust The objective of this study is to analyse the different impacts that economic polarisation, generated by economic crisis, has on social trust and trust in institutions. In explaining levels of trust, the theory of social capital focuses more on social variables such as civic participation, satisfaction with democracy and the appearance of a critical citizenry, and less on the effect of economic variables. We hypothesise that, in addition to these social effects,
* Jordi Caïs [email protected] Diego Torrente [email protected] Catalina Bolancé [email protected] 1
Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
2
Department of Econometrics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
13
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increased economic polarisation in moments of economic crisis alters the foundations of social trust and trust in institutions. Although social trust and trust in institutions are distinct variables, they are frequently considered to feed into each other, and to be mutually supportive (Putnam 1993, 2000; Brehm and Rhan 1997; Newton and Norris 2000; Zmerli and Newton 2008; Rothstein 2011). In this study we seek to analyse how the two variables behaved in a context of economic recession. To date, explanations of social trust and trust in institutions have focused more on questions of civic participation (Putnam 1993, 2000), on satisfaction with democracy (Zmerli and Newton 2008), and on the presence of a critical citizenry (Norris 2011), than on the economy. Our hypothesis, however, is that in moments of economic crisis, the relationship between the two types of trust is not mutually supportive for two key reasons. The first refers to the fact that economic polarisation profoundly changes the basis of social trust and trust in institutions. The secon
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