How culture may nurture institutional trust: Insights from Bangladesh and Nepal

Abstract

Motivation Most studies of the normative roots of political trust argue that they stem from policy performance rather than from cultural orientation. That sits at odds with the observation that institutional trust—that is, citizens’ confidence in public agencies—is high in Bangladesh and Nepal despite poor policy performance. Purpose The article assesses the influence of policy performance and cultural orientation of citizens in Bangladesh and Nepal on institutional trust. Approach and Methods The article draws on country representative surveys (Governance and Trust Survey 2) in Bangladesh and Nepal carried out in 2014–15. It identifies cultural preferences and specifically authoritarian cultural orientation (ACO)—characterized by deference to authority, unquestioning obedience, and reliance on authorities—and compares this to institutional trust. Findings High authoritarian cultural orientation (ACO) can lead citizens to trust public institutions. People’s submissiveness to the country’s authorities can obstruct critical thinking and even create positive impressions of the authorities, which in turn generates institutional trust. Institutions that are more visible and exert more authority may attract greater trust among citizens who exhibit ACO. Policy Implications When assessing citizens’ perceptions of policy performance, their cultural orientations must be considered. Trust in public agencies cannot be treated as proxy for their policy performance.

Value Orientations and Institutional Trust as Contributors to the Adoption of Online Services in Youth: A Cross-Country Comparison

“…Bosnians, Montenegrins and Slovenians who valued tradition, conformity and safety reported higher, but Bulgarians, Croatians and Kosovars who valued tradition reported lower institutional trust. Again, this might suggest that adolescents and emerging adults from the former group of countries might perceive the institutions under study as drivers of stability, corroborating previous findings on the role of authoritarianism as cultural characteristic related to higher levels of institutional trust ( Jamil and Baniamin, 2020 ). Conversely, in the latter group of countries, these institutions might be perceived as a threat to the established tradition and social order, for example by promoting ideas conflicting with those values.…”

“…They found that values such as security, conformity, tradition and power were positively associated with institutional trust, while the associations with self-direction, universalism and hedonism were negative. A similar pattern of relationships between cultural values and institutional trust was found by Jamil and Baniamin (2020) —high authoritarian cultural orientation is positively associated with trust in public institutions. Marketing research also confirms the role of individual values ( Shiu et al, 2015 ) and cultural values ( Wu and Shen, 2018 ) in institutional trust in key actors of the economic system.…”

Trauma and Trust: How War Exposure Shapes Social and Institutional Trust Among Refugees

“…The existing literature on trust often focuses on two potential sources of trust: The cultural background of migrants and the institutional context (see Dinesen, 2013 for an overview). The cultural perspective assumes trust to be rather stable over time and to be passed on from one generation to the next (e.g., Buchan et al, 2002;Uslaner, 2002Uslaner, , 2008Sønderskov and Dinesen, 2016;Jamil and Baniamin, 2021;Karaja and Rubin, 2021). The institutional perspective, on the other hand, assumes that trust can change over time and focuses on experiences with high-or low-quality institutions in a country (e.g., Levi, 1996;Rothstein and Stolle, 2008;Freitag and Bühlmann, 2009).…”

Local governmentsʼ accountability and public trust in Nepal: Does participation make a difference?

“…In cases like Nepal, high trust in low-performing governments may be attributed to a culture of obedience and loyalty to the government. Therefore, perceptions of information disclosure, visibility, and citizen participation may be more critical to citizensʼ trust in the Nepalese government than the actual performance itself (Jamil & Baniamin, 2021).…”