TRUST IN POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN TURKEY: CULTURAL AND INSTITUTIONAL EXPLANATIONS AND THE “HOME TEAM" EFFECT

Trust in political institutions can be seen as an indicator of the level of general satisfaction with the political system in democratic societies, and it is also one of the fundamental conditions for the legitimacy and well-functioning of the system. For this reason, understanding the level of trust in political institutions as well as its determinants is an important question facing social scientists. In this study, we examine the individual-level determinants of trust in parliament and government in Turkey. Our data is based on an original survey with 2.495 respondents fielded between August 29 and November 29, 2015 on a nationally representative sample from 68 provinces. Our findings indicate that there is a positive relationship between political trust and satisfaction of individuals with their lives in general, with their economic circumstances, their level of interpersonal trust, and perceptions of political efficacy. In addition, supporters of the ruling AK Party display higher trust in political institutions. On the other hand, those belonging to Kurdish and Alevi communities and those living in urban areas seem to have relatively lower levels of political trust. There is also a negative relationship between level of education level and political trust. Overall, both institutional and cultural approaches to political trust have explanatory power within the Turkish context. Moreover, in line with the “winning team” argument, supporters of the current government, who can be considered as the winners of democratic contention, display higher levels of trust towards political institutions