Ward Paul R, Miller Emma, Pearce Alex R, Meyer Samantha B
Discipline of Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Department of Knowledge Integration, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
PLoS One. 2016 Oct 4;11(10):e0164096. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164096. eCollection 2016.
Building or maintaining institutional trust is of central importance in democratic societies since negative experiences (potentially leading to mistrust) with government or other institutions may have a much more profound effect than positive experiences (potentially maintaining trust). Healthy democracy relies on more than simply trusting the national government of the time, and is mediated through other symbols of institutional power, such as the legal system, banks, the media and religious organisations. This paper focuses on institutional trust-the level and predictors of trust in some of the major institutions in society, namely politics, the media, banks, the legal system and religious organisations. We present analyses from a consolidated dataset containing data from six countries in the Asia Pacific region-Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
Cross-sectional surveys were undertaken in each country in 2009-10, with an overall sample of 6331. Analyses of differences in overall levels of institutional trust between countries were undertaken using Chi square analyses. Multivariate binomial logistic regression analysis was undertaken to identify socio-demographic predictors of trust in each country.
Religious institutions, banks and the judicial system had the highest overall trust across all countries (70%, 70% and 67% respectively), followed by newspapers and TV (59% and 58%) and then political leaders (43%). The range of levels of higher trust between countries differed from 43% for banks (range 49% in Australia to 92% in Thailand) to 59% for newspapers (28% in Australia to 87% in Japan). Across all countries, except for Australia, trust in political leaders had the lowest scores, particularly in Japan and South Korea (25% in both countries). In Thailand, people expressed the most trust in religious organisations (94%), banks (92%) and in their judicial/legal system (89%). In Hong Kong, people expressed the highest level of trust in their judicial/legal system (89%), followed by religious organisations (75%) and banks (77%). Australian respondents reported the least amount of trust in TV/media (24%) and press/newspapers (28%). South Korea put the least trust in their political leaders (25%), their legal system (43%) and religious organisations (45%). The key predictors of lower trust in institutions across all countries were males, people under 44 years and people unsatisfied with the health and standard of living.
We interpreted our data using Fukuyama's theory of 'high/low trust' societies. The levels of institutional trust in each society did not conform to our hypothesis, with Thailand exhibiting the highest trust (predicted to be medium level), Hong Kong and Japan exhibiting medium trust (predicted to be low and high respectively) and Australia and South Korea exhibiting low trust (predicted to be high and medium respectively). Taiwan was the only country where the actual and predicted trust was the same, namely low trust. Given the fact that these predictors crossed national boundaries and institutional types, further research and policy should focus specifically on improving trust within these groups in order that they can be empowered to play a more central role in democratic vitality.
在民主社会中，建立或维持制度信任至关重要，因为与政府或其他机构的负面经历（可能导致不信任）可能比正面经历（可能维持信任）产生更深远的影响。健康的民主不仅仅依赖于信任当时的国家政府，还通过其他制度权力象征来调节，如法律体系、银行、媒体和宗教组织。本文聚焦于制度信任——社会中一些主要机构（即政治、媒体、银行、法律体系和宗教组织）的信任水平及预测因素。我们展示了对一个合并数据集的分析，该数据集包含来自亚太地区六个国家——澳大利亚、中国香港、日本、韩国、中国台湾和泰国的数据。
2009 - 2010年在每个国家进行了横断面调查，总样本量为6331。使用卡方分析对各国制度信任总体水平的差异进行分析。进行多变量二项逻辑回归分析以确定每个国家信任的社会人口统计学预测因素。
宗教机构、银行和司法系统在所有国家中总体信任度最高（分别为70%、70%和67%），其次是报纸和电视（59%和58%），然后是政治领导人（43%）。各国较高信任水平的范围有所不同，银行从43%（澳大利亚为49%至泰国为92%）到报纸的59%（澳大利亚为28%至日本为87%）。在所有国家中，除了澳大利亚，对政治领导人的信任得分最低，特别是在日本和韩国（两国均为25%）。在泰国，人们对宗教组织（94%）、银行（92%）及其司法/法律体系（89%）表达的信任最多。在中国香港，人们对其司法/法律体系（89%）表达的信任水平最高，其次是宗教组织（75%）和银行（77%）。澳大利亚受访者对电视/媒体（24%）和新闻/报纸（28%）的信任度最低。韩国对其政治领导人（25%）、法律体系（43%）和宗教组织（45%）的信任度最低。所有国家中对机构信任度较低的关键预测因素是男性、44岁以下人群以及对健康和生活水平不满意的人群。
我们运用福山的“高/低信任”社会理论来解读我们的数据。每个社会的制度信任水平不符合我们的假设，泰国展现出最高信任度（预计为中等水平），中国香港和日本展现出中等信任度（预计分别为低和高），澳大利亚和韩国展现出低信任度（预计分别为高和中等）。中国台湾是唯一实际信任度和预测信任度相同的地区，即低信任度。鉴于这些预测因素跨越国界和机构类型，进一步的研究和政策应特别关注提高这些群体内部的信任度，以便他们能够在民主活力中发挥更核心的作用。
