Institutional Trust. An element of convergence and divergence between elites and citizens in Latin America

Institutional trust is an element of linkage between elites and citizens, and a crucial aspect of performance, stability and legitimacy of the democratic political system. This paper will attempt to verify different hypotheses from the cultural and institutional theory related to the variation in institutional trust between countries in first place; and, in second place within Latin American countries (between citizens and parliamentary elites). The survey data used in this paper comes from the Latin American Public Opinion Project –LAPOP- (Vanderbilt University) and for parliamentary elites from Elites Parlamentarias Latino Americanas –PELA- (University of Salamanca). One of the main objects of the paper is trying to find patterns of homogeneity or convergence between, and within, countries.