This dissertation addresses generalized trust in Post-Communist Europe. I
examine trust stressing two sets of factors: the impact of attitudes associated with
cleavages coming out of transition to democracy, and the importance of informal
interpersonal association over more formal, structured forms of association. I argue that
the classic list of cleavages suggested by Lipset and Rokkan (1967) have less importance
to trust since those cleavages developed under the communist one-party state and were
therefore less connected to the party system. As a result, these classic cleavages did not
have the same mobilization functions as they did in Western Europe. Instead, I argue
that cleavages that have developed out of the transition to democracy and a free-market
economic system bear greater importance to trust.
I further argue that due to the experience of forced group association during the
communist era, and lingering distaste for formal political participation, the familiar
Western models of the benefits of social engagement underestimate the importance of
informal association in the post-communist states. Informal association was a key
component of survival during the communist era and continues to be a valuable means
of conferring information and forming political judgments. The first contribution this dissertation makes is that it brings together theories of
political cleavages with theories of trust and social capital development. The
dissertation bridges the gap between societal divisions and the position of the individual
within these divisions. A second contribution of the dissertation is the testing of
established theories of formal social engagement in post-communist states. The
secretive nature of association during the communist era differs greatly from the open
nature of association in the West. Theories of trust and social capital development must
take this fact into account when exploring post-communist states.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3233 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Rossbach, David Otto |
| Contributors | Pacek, Alexander C. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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