Right after the regime change, however, the post-Communist countries do not distinguish between civil and political institutions and judge them holistically with the same skepticism.
The level of political trust varies across the Eastern and Central European countries and provokes a controversy about the cause of this phenomenon. The socialization theory basically state that political values and beliefs are learned, usually as the result of life experiences associated with individual’s positions in society as reflected in their education, gender and socioeconomic status. The performance theories, on the other hand, hold that trust depends on individual assessment of the success with which political and social institutions provide expected social, economic and political benefits. Both perspectives state that trust is a product of experience, but they differ in their assumed time frames. What is certain is that the legacy of Communism must be taken into consideration in the explanation of trust in Eastern European countries.
This legacy of the past, however, is a subject to periodic revision based on more recent experiences and evaluations of contemporary performance, so the attitudes toward the Communist regime are used as a base to evaluate the performance of present institutions. The economic reforms that took place after the fall of Communism may prove their worth later, but in the beginning they caused a lot of confusion and decrease of the economy. The reforms of the political institutions can be felt earlier, which makes their evaluation much easier. For citizens that are accustomed to state interference with many aspects of their private life - including religion practicing and freedom to join certain organizations – the removal of such restrictions can significantly influence their political trust. In this respect, when compared to economic reforms, expanding individual freedom is inexpensive and can be achieved more quickly with relatively fewer resources through administrative deconstruction. Perceptions of freedom and fairness have had the strongest and most constant impact on contemporary trust. The new regimes in Eastern and Central Europe are providing citizens with a variety of individual freedoms and are pledged to maintain those freedoms under the threat of an electoral sanction. In contrast, economic performance has a big, but inconsistent impact. The move from a command economy resulted in a substantial deterioration of macroeconomic performance and reduction of living standards, but the introduction of market reforms generated hopes of better economic conditions in the future. The worst economic statistics were registered in 1993-1994, and since then the conditions are considerably improving .
Now, let us have a look at some empirical results.