Macro-sociological processes such as globalization, virtualization, and the economic crisis leave their marks on the European political arena and change the relation between ‘a’ people and ‘its’ elites. We deem trust to be crucial in this context, as trust is the moral cement that binds a just political order. We aim to understand what that means for protesters. We exploit a dataset ‘Caught in the act of protest. Contextualizing Contestation’ comprising data on 85 demonstrations spread over nine countries (mature democracies, post-communist/post-authoritarian new democracies) regarding a variety of issues (e.g. anti-abortion, climate change, anti-austerity). This dataset encompasses data on over 18,000 demonstrators. These protesters’ relation to their political elites vary widely, ranging from trustworthy capable, to corrupt incapable. We are particularly interested in who the trusting and distrusting protesters are and how this variation in trust affects protesters’ political efficacy and their motives to participate.
