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Research background: We are guided by concepts linking political trust with the perceived rank of people in the wealth hierarchy, their confidence in other people, and the means they use to learn about events at home and abroad.Purpose of the article: The aim of the article is to assess and analyse at the micro level the impact of subjective welfare, interpersonal trust and the intensity of usage of television & radio or the Internet to search for news on political trust in four levels of Russian government.Methods: The study is based on microdata from the Life in Transition Surveys provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Ordinal logit regressions are constructed to evaluate the impact of test and control variables on political trust in the Russian president, federal, regional, and local governments in 2010 and 2016.Findings & value added: We identify a reverse of political trust in the upper levels of the Russian government between 2010 and 2016, when the impact of perceived welfare level changes from positive to negative. This phenomenon is explained by the focus of the policy of the federal centre on sup-porting the poor groups of the population, as well as its distancing from business. In contrast, the positive, albeit inconsistent, effect of subjective wealth on trust in lower-level governments is due to the benefits that businesses can gain from interaction with local authorities. We find the positive impact of controlled television and radio on trust in the upper echelons of power, along with the negative impact of the freer Internet on political trust in regional and local authorities. We also confirm the hypothesis of a positive and significant relationship between interpersonal and political trust, highlighting the role of social capital. Finally, our research shows that in systems of the hierarchical type, such as Russia, specific mechanisms for maintaining political trust are established. They are associated with the redistribution of public expectations and claims to different branches of government. The results obtained are applicable for managing political trust through building a democratic state and civil society.

Цель настоящего исследования – анализ и количественное оценивание влияния институциональных факторов на политическое доверие различным уровням власти (федеральной, региональной и местной) в современной России. Данные и методы. Исследование основано на микроданных опроса Европейского банка реконструкции и развития (ЕБРР) «Мониторинг уровня жизни домохозяйств/индивидов в развитых, переходных и развивающихся странах» (LiTS – Life in Transition Survey). В качестве институциональных факторов доверия нами рассматривались воспринимаемая эффективность и коррупционность органов власти, а также уровень межличностного доверия. Дополнительной объясняющей переменной стал субъективный дециль богатства домохозяйств. Для оценивания параметров модели использовались линейные регрессии с инструментальными переменными. Результаты и их применение. Во-первых, нами было установлено, что в 2016 году главной детерминантой доверия российских граждан президенту была воспринимаемая эффективность действий федерального правительства. В то же время главным фактором (не)доверия российских граждан местным органам власти был воспринимаемый уровень коррупции на местах. Во-вторых, мы установили, что бедные домохозяйства оказывались наиболее лояльными по отношению к российскому президенту группами населения, и объяснили данный феномен активной перераспределительной политикой федеральных властей. В-третьих, на микроуровне мы обнаружили существенную положительную связь политического доверия с межличностным доверием. В заключение даны рекомендации относительно эффективного управления политическим доверием в современной России. ; The aim of this study is to analyze and assess the impact of institutional factors on political trust in various levels of government (federal, regional and local) in modern Russia. Data and methods. The study is based on microdata from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) "Life in Transition Survey" (LiTS). We examined such institutional factors of political trust as perceived government performance and level of corruption, as well as the level of interpersonal trust. The subjective decile of household wealth was an additional explanatory variable in our analysis. We estimated the model parameters using linear regressions with instrumental variables. Results and their application. First, we found that in 2016 the perceived effectiveness of the federal government was the main determinant of Russian trust in the president. At the same time, the perceived level of local corruption was a major factor of Russian citizens' (mis)trust in local authorities. Second, we found that poor households turned out to be the most loyal groups of the population towards the Russian president, and we explained this phenomenon by the active redistributive policy of the federal authorities. Third, we revealed a significant positive relationship between political and interpersonal trust at the micro level. In conclusion, we made recommendations on the effective management of political trust in modern Russia.

This paper analyzes two dimensions of factors of political trust in Russia. The first is the target dimension (sociotropic vs. egocentric) and the second is the time dimension (retrospective vs. perspective). The study uses microdata from the 2016 Life in Transition Survey (LiTS) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. We find robust evidence favoring the dominant sociotropic channel of political trust. Thus, individuals, when deciding whether or not to trust the Russian government, are primarily guided by improvements in the external environment. Moreover, we find that the impact of sociotropic factors on political trust depends on the level of government. Improvements in political performance are the most important determinant of trust in the Russian president, while institutional change and economic development are the most important determinants in models of trust for other governmental levels. Finally, we find that individuals who have lost their wealth show more trust than those who have preserved or increased it. However, this effect only works if individuals are optimistic about the future.