Categorizing Institutional Trust in South Korea: Evidence From the 2021 Social Integration Survey

Categorizing Institutional Trust in South Korea: Evidence From the 2021 Social Integration Survey

What explains institutional trust in South Korea and to what extent does this differ across types of institutions? Existing research focuses on performance versus generalized social trust, but rarely evaluates types of state institutions or compares them with views on non-state institutions, making it unclear whether the same underlying factors shape perceptions. With data from South Korea's 2021 Social Integration Survey, I find stronger evidence of generalized social trust over performance measures, with variation across categories of institutions.