The Aftermath of Communism and the Vicissitudes of Public Trust
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 6314 words.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the collapse of the Soviet model of legitimate political authority throughout Europe, Africa, and mainland Central America, formed the largest single shift...
Diffuse Trust or Diffuse Analysis? The Specificity of Political Distrust in Post-Communist Europe
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 8377 words.
Political theorists claim that political trust is located on the continuum that runs from blind faith to enforceable contract. Trust ‘as passion’ borders on blind faith, while trust ‘as calculation’...
Forms of Social Solidarity in Russia and the Soviet Union1
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 6457 words.
Traditional interpretations of Russian society rest on a contrast between Russian authoritarianism and the liberties of Western societies. According to these interpretations, Russia right up to the...
The Genealogy of Krugovaya Poruka: Forced Trust as a Feature of Russian Political Culture
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 9976 words.
Russia is characterized by a high degree of interpersonal trust, reflected in the fundamental divide between us/insiders (svoi) and them/outsiders (chuzhie), with a consequent gap in ethical...
Introduction: Trust/Risk and Trust/Fear
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 9151 words.
It is not so long ago that Niklas Luhmann (1988) wrote that the study of trust has never been a topic in mainstream sociology, and others have echoed this claim with reference to other social...
The Problem of Trust in Russian Public Opinion
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 5151 words.
Trust is closely related to other social concepts such as hope, expectations, loyalty, charismatic authority, rational considerations, and the mass imagination. Recently, ‘trust’ and a related...
Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Book. Subjects: social psychology. 232 pages.
The ten chapters in this book are concerned with theoretical and empirical analyses of trust and distrust in post-Communist Europe after the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989. The contributors come...
Trust and Distrust in Old and New Democracies
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 8228 words.
Research on the transition of countries in post-Communist Europe towards democracy mostly indicates that there is more political and institutional trust in Western democratic countries than in the...
Trust as a Psychosocial Feeling: Socialization and Totalitarianism
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 9039 words.
Georg Simmel, who is well known for his study of the emerging social conditions of sociality and its forms, developed the analysis of psychosocial feelings and emotional categories in order to grasp...
Trust, Confidence, and Social Capital in Poland: A Historical Perspective
in Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe
September 2004; published online February 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: social psychology. 8735 words.
Sociologists and other social scientists have attempted to explain differences in economic success and in democratic performance by invoking trust and the related concept of social capital. This...