Social trust, Social capital, World values survey, Cross country survey analysis,

Much research focusing on the welfare state is based on the assumption that welfare regimes are homogenous entities. This idea is supported by studies analysing cash benefits. In the area of welfare services, however, local governments in most countries have some autonomy regarding policy formation as well as the design and implementation of policies. In practice, substantial local differences exist with regard to the provision of welfare services, which in turn challenge our conception of nation-wide homogenous welfare state regimes. This paper examines the factors causing marked differences in local government spending in the provision of care for older people in Denmark. The conclusion is that the wealth of the municipality, local demographics and privatisation can explain about 48 per cent of the differences in local government spending. Political factors such as the 'colour' of local government have no explanatory power, while a high percentage of women in municipal councils appears to have a slightly negative effect on spending.

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Contemporary research on trust has come to assume that education has a universal positive effect on trust. Using the survey item that has dominated the trust literature –‘whether one believes most people can be trusted or one can never be too careful’ – education is often found to be one of the strongest predictors of trust, more important than age, income, wealth, health or any another individual characteristic. Thus there are indeed reasons to believe that education sometimes increases the propensity to trust other people. However, this article argues that there are limits to the positive effect derived from education. Using the fifth wave of the World Values Survey, it is demonstrated that there is no positive effect from education on trust within the family, among friends or among persons living in one’s neighbourhood. In the latter case, a negative effect is found. It is also demonstrated that the positive effect on ‘generalized trust’ is largely a phenomenon found in low-corruption countries. The article demonstrates that in high-corruption countries, education decreases trust in other people – both generalized trust and trust in more proximate relationships.