Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Christina Eder , Ingvill C. Mochmann and Markus Quandt -- Editors’ Introduction: Political Trust and Political Disenchantment in a Comparative Perspective / Markus Quandt , Christina Eder and Ingvill C. Mochmann -- Trust and Political Disenchantment: An Overview / Ken Newton -- Trends in Conventional and Unconventional Political: Participation in Europe, 1981–2008 / Rik Linssen , Hans Schmeets , Peer Scheepers and Manfred te Grotenhuis -- Rethinking the Meaning and Measurement of Political Trust / Suzanne L. Parker , Glenn R. Parker and Terri L. Towner -- When Citizens Lose Faith: Political Trust and Political Participation / Christina Eder and Alexia Katsanidou -- The Role of Electoral Systems for the Translation of Political: Trust into Electoral Participation / Christoph Arndt -- Social Risk, Political Detachment and Welfare State: De-Commodification / Maria Oskarson -- Contextual Income Inequality and Political Behavior / Michael P. McDonald -- Thinking Outside the Democratic Box: Political Values, Performance and Political Support in Authoritarian Regimes: A Comparative Analysis / Wiebke Breustedt and Toralf Stark -- Index / Christina Eder , Ingvill C. Mochmann and Markus Quandt.

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That the publics of Western democracies are becoming increasingly disenchanted with their political institutions is part of the conventional wisdom in Political Science. This trend is often equated with the expectation that all forms of political attachment and participation show similar patterns of decline. Based on empirical underpinnings derived from a range of original and sophisticated comparative analyses from Europe and beyond, this collection shows that no such universal pattern of decline exists. Nor should it be expected, given the diversity of reasons that citizens have to place or withdraw trust, and to engage in conventional political participation or in protest. Contributers are: Christoph Arndt, Wiebke Breustedt, Christina Eder, Manfred te Grotenhuis, Alexia Katsanidou, Rik Linssen, Michael P. McDonald, Ingvill C. Mochmann, Kenneth Newton, Maria Oskarson, Suzanne L. Parker, Glenn R. Parker, Markus Quandt, Peer Scheepers, Hans Schmeets, Thoralf Stark, and Terri L. Towner.