POLITICAL TRUST AND ELECTORAL BEHAVIOUR

The concept of trust in the context of voting behavior is difficult to define, because it is not a factor specific solely to this domain. Firstly, trust is an essential element of social life. It is the essence of social capital that has significant impact on many issues – education, economic growth, crime level, quality of functioning of the democratic institutions, community of the citizens. Secondly, in large partly due to the multiple contexts of use of this concept, there are difficulties as regards distinguishing it from related concepts such as empathy, community, respect, kindness, brotherhood, esteem, unity. Despite the many shortcomings and imperfections in the concept of trust, it appears that the concept is well understood intuitively – individuals answering questions in surveys on trust seem to understand the concept very well, and their expressed trust level is proportionate to their individually observable behaviour.