| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 140249 | The Social Science Journal | 2013 | 11 Pages |
This paper uses data from the European Social Survey regarding 18 European countries to test the relationship between modernization and malaise. Trust in government institutes (TGI) is used as a proxy measure of malaise. The explanatory power of three theories explaining trust is compared to that of the theory of symbolic society. This theory sees detraditionalization as a shift in the mode of social control. From a situation in which the conduct of conduct is based on tradition, threat of scarcity and belief, societies shift to social control on the basis of a set of new or expanded socializing institutions. Societies in which this shift occurs are called symbolic societies. We observe that TGI is higher the more highly developed symbolic society is and that individual characteristics that are adapted to the new mode of social control have a positive influence on TGI and have stronger effects the more symbolic society is developed.
► Modernization should be understood as a shift in social control. ► Modernization does not lead to social malaise. ► Trust in governmental institutions is higher in developed symbolic society. ► Indicators adapted to new mode of control have a positive effect on trust.
