Interpersonal trust, political trust and non‐institutionalised political participation in Western Europe

Trust is a core concept in the continuing political science discourse on social capital and its meaning for democracy. In this article, the relationship between interpersonal trust, trust in political institutions and non‐institutionalised legal political participation is analysed based on data from the Eurobarometer surveys and the European/World Values Studies. The statistical relationship between interpersonal trust and political trust in nine European countries is found to be small, though generally positive. Thus, interpersonal trust cannot be regarded as an important antecedent or consequence of political trust. A different picture emerges regarding the relationship between political trust and legal non‐institutionalised participation: the lower political trust the higher the probability of engaging in direct action. Finally, a positive relationship between interpersonal trust and direct action is found, thereby pointing to trust as a precondition or consequence of non‐institutionalised political involvement. In sum, it appears that it is worthwhile to further pursue the study of social capital in the context of democratic politics.