Abstract: Culturalist approaches, based on factors related to socialization, and institutionalist one, based on factors related to experience with the political system, compete for the explanation of the factors related to low levels of political trust in Latin America. This paper briefly reviews these two approaches and compares their predictive power to explain political trust in the region. Using data from Latinobarometro 2005, the technique of hierarchical linear model it was applied with the purpose of considering the dependence among observations at country level. The political trust is higher among those who support the president; among those who are in countries that are considered the most democratic; individuals who positively evaluate the economic situation, public policies and government capacity to combat corruption; individuals with greater political sophistication. The cultural variables, interpersonal trust and the assessment of co-citizens also enhance political trust, but have much smaller effect than the institutional variables.
democratic institutions; political trust; culturalist approach; institutionalist approach; hierarchical linear model
