Examining the distinctiveness of antecedents to trust in government: Evidence from South Korea

Approaches to understanding trust in government are likely to be incomplete if they are only applied to trust and not government as well. As such, this study builds upon existing attempts to understand trust in government by deconstructing the terms trust and government and assessing the relationships among the various components within South Korea. To analyse the antecedents of trust in government, multiple regression analyses are used to assess The Social Trust Public Opinion Survey (2004), which addresses current trust levels across society, markets, institutions, and government. Our findings suggest the significance of determinants of trust vary by area of government.