Confidence in institutions: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

ENBecause of several conditions, it is rather difficult to carry out an analysis of political trust in the post-Communist countries, including the Baltic States. On the one hand, these are countries where the traditions of democracy are only in the process of formation. We could assume, therefore, that, as democracy develops, the trust of the people both in the government as well as civic institutions would grow. However, the findings of Western researchers, made from surveys in their own countries, may be regarded as not supporting such an assumption. These findings rather suggest a downslide in political trust. Researchers often even speak about the crisis of representative democracy. As we analyze the situation in the Baltic States, we have to consider the ambivalent nature of this situation: on the one hand, the political trust is determined by specific transitional processes and conditions in each particular country. On the other hand, however, taking into account the fast information exchange, we may not ignore the influence of socio-political changes in Western countries on the new democratic states. We may also not exclude the possibility that certain disillusionment with representative democracy, which can be seen in Western countries, may also create more skepticism and criticism in post-Communist countries in respect to democracy and its institutions. Even more so, if we take into account the rather high educational levels of the population in these countries in combination with the existing rather poor living conditions.The situation in the countries of newly restored democracy is complicated by the fact that the experience of democracy in these countries is quite weak, and dissatisfaction of the people with the slow development of democracy contributes to the critical attitudes toward the ways in which democracy is implemented and also toward democratic institutions. This dissatisfaction is further aggravated by the enormous distance between the living conditions in developed countries and in the newly democratic countries, especially because this distance has not much diminished during the first ten years of independence for most of the inhabitants in the newly democratic countries.