Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Political trust is essential for implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda, particularly Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 on building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions. At the same time, there has been a long-standing decline in political trust within democratic countries, which presents a considerable obstacle to the enactment of sustainable development policies. Although prior research has explored the relationship between economic conditions and political trust, evidence on how different dimensions of inequality jointly shape trust remains limited. This study addresses this gap by analysing how economic inequality, regional economic disparities, and subjective income perceptions affect political trust. Using data from the European Social Survey (Round 9), we estimate multilevel models that account for both individual- and country-level factors. The results demonstrate a negative relationship between individual income and political trust, while lower economic inequality strengthens this negative relationship. Our findings highlight that reducing economic inequality is crucial for enhancing political trust, suggesting that governments should prioritize equitable resource distribution and address regional disparities to foster trust in institutions. By integrating subjective well-being with objective economic indicators, this research offers a comprehensive view of how inequality affects political trust across the EU countries and outlines institutional and distributive conditions that support progress toward the SDGs.
Source: Sustainability
DOI: 10.3390/su18010210
Authors: Yevhen Revtiuk, Olga Zelinska
Institutions: Poznań University of Technology, Uniwersytet SWPS
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
OpenAlex ID: W7117167148