Abstract Examines patterns in public confidence in the major institutions of Western Europe during the decade of the 1980s. It first addresses some conceptual and theoretical issues about the measurement of confidence in institutions, and reviews the European Values Surveys used as data sources. It then presents evidence for the period 1981–90, and explores the factors that can account for the observed variations in the levels of confidence in various institutions, notably in respect of government and major companies. The finding that not all confidence levels move in tandem should direct attention to the possibility that inter‐institutional linkages might be important for determining overall confidence in the political order.
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