If You Don’t Trust, You Won’t Be Happy”: Institutional Trust among Argentina’s Political Elite

Abstract

This paper explores the determinants of institutional trust in Argentina through a survey of members of the political elite. In the context of the recent election of Javier Milei as president, it analyzes how sociodemographic and ideological factors influence trust in key institutions (Congress, political parties, elections). New evidence is found in favor of a positive relationship between age and trust in political institutions and in favor of a negative relationship between ideological extremism and institutional trust. Furthermore, the statistical analysis is replicated to analyze society in general, using data from the 2023 Lapop survey, where it is also observed that greater ideological extremism is associated with lower political trust.