Trust in National Governments in 30 European Democracies, 1990-2024

Political trust is regarded as an important element of regime support and factor of regime stability; it is widely associated with a number of positive outcomes in representative European democracies. Political trust drives citizens’ interest and engagement in politics, increases voting turnout and makes law-abiding behaviour more common. Political trust is frequently equated to diffuse regime support and thus linked to the effective functioning and stability of the political system. The topic of this paper is ‘Trust in National Governments in Europe’. The paper will describe and analyse the structure and levels of citizen’s trust in national governments in all 27 member states of the European Union and in Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom. Hence the paper will cover 30 European democracies. The period of descriptive and explanatory analysis is from 1990 until 2024. The paper will present the first results of the HORIZON EUROPE study of ‘Trust in European Democracies – TRUEDEM’, which is directed by the author of this paper. The paper will present a multivariate model of explanation of trust in 30 National Governments in Europe.