Issue ? 54. February 2016

Political Trust: How to Measure It?

Graduate student, P. Sorokin Syktyvkar State University; Expert consultant of the Information, Administration of the Head of the Republic of Komi and the Government of the Republic of Komi, Adviser to the State Civil Service of the Republic of Komi 1 class, Syktyvkar, Russian Federation.
E-mail: elena_balygina@bk.ru

The author considers the social phenomenon of trust, which is today unanimously recognized by researchers as a basis of social stability and social and economic transformation. The focus is on determining the level of political trust in the community as there is no universal method for this today. The author has identified a number of criteria to measure the level of public trust in political institutions and public authorities. The basic indicators of political trust defined by the author are: social and economic criteria, experimental and sociological measuring of trust, a degree of participation in political activities and ways of civil society development. This complex system for evaluating public trust was been developed based on an analysis and generalization of earlier research. This method may be used to determine the level of public trust in different periods of time and in different regions.

Keywords

Political trust, trust measurement, confidence, protest, elections.