Historical Border Changes, State Building, and Contemporary Trust in Europe

Political borders profoundly influence outcomes central to international politics. Accordingly, a growing literature shows that historical boundaries affect important macro-outcomes such as patterns of interstate disputes and trade. To explain these findings, existing theories posit that borders hav...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American political science review 2022-08, Vol.116 (3), p.875-895
Main Authors: ABRAMSON, SCOTT F, CARTER, DAVID B., YING, LUWEI
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Behavior
Beliefs
Borders
Boundaries
Disputes
Evidence
Hungarian
Individual differences
Institutionalization
International relations
International trade
Interpersonal Relationship
Investment
Political Attitudes
Political science
Social networks
State building
Trust (Psychology)
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Summary:Political borders profoundly influence outcomes central to international politics. Accordingly, a growing literature shows that historical boundaries affect important macro-outcomes such as patterns of interstate disputes and trade. To explain these findings, existing theories posit that borders have persistent effects on individual-level behavior, but the literature lacks empirical evidence of such effects. Combining spatial data on centuries of border changes in Europe with a wide range of contemporary survey evidence, we show that historical border changes have persistent effects on two of the most politically significant aspects of behavior: individuals’ political and social trust. We demonstrate that in areas where borders frequently changed, individuals are, on average, less trusting of others as well as their governments. We argue that this occurs because border changes disrupt historical state-building processes and limit the formation of interpersonal social networks, which leads to lower levels of trust.
ISSN:0003-0554
1537-5943
DOI:10.1017/S0003055421001428