Research on social trust has generally linked it to membership in voluntary
organizations, where participants—due to constant social interactions—are more
likely to trust strangers. However, scholars in the field have devised a different
theoretical framework, one which accounts for the perceptions of institutions on
social trust, specifically those involved in the universal enforcement of norms (e.g.
the judicial system). This research seeks to contribute to the debate through a
model that empirically evaluates the effect that the perceptions individuals’ hold of
their institutions has on their willingness to trust strangers, while controlling for
participation in voluntary organizations. To do this I will make use of 2008 data
on Panama from the Latinobarómetro. The focus on a specific country allows for
an analysis of the institutional context, helping one understand how the
perceptions of these institutions are formed in the minds of citizens. The results
show that there are significant impacts on social trust from the perceptions
individuals have of institutions involved in the universal enforcement of norms.