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Well, there are not many countries where people actually trust institutions (and, above all, the government). Perhaps Germany, Nordic countries, Netherlands, Japan, maybe a few more.

In Switzerland, we work with the government, and are generally OK with it, but proceed cautiously, as if it could explode any second. In Spain and France already, government is considered an inefficient nuisance. In many places in South America, the government is an adversary. In Russia, government is your arch-enemy, and you do everything possible to either hide from it, perhaps in another country, or actually damage it (unless you are evil and work for them).

So "trusting institutions" is a foreign, alien concept for most of the world.




Ok, but there are two institutions here: corporations and governments. Who do you think that Southern Europeans relatively trust more of those?


Neither. Europeans tend to be cynical and more in the South than in the North.


I don’t think that many people trust _corporations_ anywhere. In the US, people at least can have some stake there, by owning stocks etc, which makes them more engaged. Stock markets in Europe are laughable, people rarely invest there, except through their bank funds.




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