SELECTIVE TRUST IN INSTITUTIONS AMIDST ROMANIA'S POLITICAL PROTESTS

Discontent with politics has deeply marked the democratic development of post communist Romania. Mistrust in the political system, and as a consequence of various institutions of public administration, has escalated at the end of January 2017, when citizens took to the streets as the newly installed government planned to decriminalize certain corruption offenses through an emergency ordinance, the effects of which would have pardoned high-ranking political leaders. Based on an online survey conducted with a group of socially active respondents, the current paper seeks to understand the levels of trust in institutions at the time of the protests. The research represents a step further in understanding attitudes that fuel social unrest, which emerges as a prominent feature in the most recent development of Romanian politics.