The Effects of Economic Crisis on Trust: Paradoxes for Social Capital Theory

Abstract

The theory of social capital rarely takes economic variables into account. This article confirms that economic factors had greater explanatory power for social trust and trust in institutions during times of economic crisis, due mainly to increased economic polarization of the population. We use Spain as a case study to analyse the impact of a number of variables on social and institutional trust before and during the economic crisis. The economic crisis in Spain resulted in a paradox: a notable decline in trust in institutions, together with a surprising increase - rather than the expected decrease - in social trust. The data analysed here also highlight the possibility that the two types of trust did not track in a mutually supportive manner due to the emergence of Movimiento 15M, which gave rise to the appearance of new political parties such as Podemos, on the extreme left of the electoral scale.