Abstract

To what extent do individuals trust one another in transitional societies? Does trust survive when political institutions are weak, when the potential for ethnic conflict is high and when old mechanisms for social control have disappeared? This study uses a combination of survey data and laboratory experimental methods to investigate this question. The data are unique in that the experiments were conducted in the field, the subjects in the experiments were a sub-sample of a larger, face-to-face survey of the population and the respondents were drawn from a pair of matched republics from the Russian Federation. Measures of generalized and individual trust are used, as well anexperimental design that taps the willing of an individual to trust an anonymous partner (and the reciprocated level of trust). The results are correlated with confidence inpolitical and economic institutions, inter-ethnic conflict and generational change.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the American Political Science Association Meetings, Chicago, Illinois, September 2-5, 2004. Support from the National Science Foundation (OPP 00-82715), the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research and the Russell Sage Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. Those entities are not responsible for the contents of this manuscript.