State, social trust and ethnic minorities

Authors

  • Francisco Herreros Vázquez CSIC
  • Henar Criado Olmos Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Keywords:

Trust, social capital, State, ethnic groups, European Social Survey

Abstract

The role of the State in the promotion of social or generalized trust is one of the most important ongoing topics in the social capital research agenda. In this article, we defend that the State can play a positive role in the creation of social trust as a third-party enforcer of private agreements. This positive effect depends on the efficacy and impartiality of the State. We also argue that the effects of the State on social trust will be unevenly distributed among majoritarian and minoritarian ethnic groups. These hypotheses are confirmed for a data set of twenty-two European countries.

Author Biographies

Francisco Herreros Vázquez, CSIC

Investigador en la Unidad de Políticas Comparadas (CSIC) en Madrid. Ha sido visiting scholar en la Universidad de Nueva York (2003-2004). Su investigación está centrada en el análisis del capital social, la teoría democrática y el estudio de procesos de violencia política. Sus publicaciones recientes incluyen The Problem of Forming Social Capital. Why Trust? (Nueva York, Palgrave, 2004), «The dilemma of social democracy in 1914: Chauvinism or Social Dilemma?», Rationality and Society, 15 (2) (2003), «Screening before sanctioning. Elections and the Republican Tradition», European Journal of Political Theory, 5 (4) (2006) y «The Full Weight of the State. The Logic of State-sanctioned Random Political Violence», Journal of Peace Research, 43 (6) (2006).

Henar Criado Olmos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Profesora en el Departamento de Ciencia Política I de la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Ha sido visiting scholar en la Universidad de Nueva York (2003-2004). Su investigación se centra en el estudio del comportamiento político, confianza, teoría democrática y partidos políticos. Sus publicaciones recientes incluyen «Political Support: Taking into Account the Institucional Context», Comparative Political Studies, 41 (12) (2007, en prensa), «The Effects of Parties’ Mobilization Strategies on vote. PSOE and PP in the 1996 Spanish Elections», European Journal of Political Research (en prensa), y «¿Qué tema destacar? El discurso del PSOE y el PP durante las campañas de 1996 y 2000», Revista Internacional de Sociología, 41 (2005).

Downloads

Published

2008-01-01

How to Cite

Herreros Vázquez, F., & Criado Olmos, H. (2008). State, social trust and ethnic minorities. Spanish Journal of Sociology, (6). Retrieved from https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/res/article/view/65001

Issue

No. 6 (2006): Sumario Número 6

Section

Articles

License

In the event that your manuscript is accepted for publication in Revista Española de Sociología, it will be understood that the authors access to:

• The transfer of the copyright of the article to Revista Española de Sociología.

• The assignment to the Revista Española de Sociología of the rights of commercial exploitation of the article to third parties both in the offset and digital formats, as well as to the search engines and platforms that may serve as intermediaries for the sale or knowledge of the article.

Similar Articles

1 2 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.