Exploring the Sources of Institutional Trust in China: Culture, Mobilization, or Performance?

While democratic countries have been concerned about a “trust crisis” since the 1960s, China surprisingly displays a very high level of public trust in institutions. Why do people trust institutions and to what extent does institutional trust in China differ from that in democracies? Using the 2004 China Values and Ethics Survey, this article explores three different dimensions of institutional trust in China: trust in administrative institutions, trust in legal institutions, and trust in societal institutions. The analysis shows that institutional trust is more than a product of traditional values in China. Rather, it is more of an individual rational choice based heavily on the evaluations of the institutional performance, and it is also a result of government‐controlled politicization. Trust in administrative institutions, in particular, mainly comes from satisfactory institutional performance. Institutional trust has a great impact on the development of democracy and legal participation in China.