社會信任在1990年代社會資本理論興起後又再度受到學界廣泛的討論。政治信任向來都被視爲民主政治平穩運作的重要關鍵之一。雖然社會信任與政治信任都有不同的研究支持其對民主政體的正面影響力,但是,這兩類的信任彼此是否有關,卻少有研究嘗試有系統地探究。故本文亟思從政治文化的途徑承繼現有的研究,進一步提出解釋社會信任如何影響政治信任的理論架構,並以台灣作爲初步檢證的個案。本文主要論點有二:對於政治信任的來源而言,社會信任有獨立於制度表現等理性選擇因素之外的影響力;此外,當吾人論及政治信任時,應依照對象與功能分類,不可將其視爲一個單一的概念。爲能印證以上論點,本文使用「亞洲民主動態調查」釋出的第二波資料,以多元迴歸爲主要分析方法。研究結果顯示,民眾的社會信任程度的確會影響其政治信任。同時,本文也證實在考量個人理性選擇因素下,社會信任對執行公權力機關信任之影響力會高於其對政治機構信任之影響力。
Social Trust has regained its spotlight since the prime of social capital theory in the 1990s. On the other hand, political trust has long been identified as key to the smooth operation of democracy. However, few studies have been devoted to systematically explore the possible relationship between the two. With this concern in mind, this article attempts not only to review the theories and researches from political culturists on the effects of social trust on political trust but also to refine some of their arguments. In essence, this paper argues that social trust has significant effects on the level of political trust regardless of those performance-based factors In addition, when speaking of political trust, it should be categorized by objects and functions. With data collected by ”the Asian Barometer Survey, second wave 2006” (ABS 2006) and OLS multiple regression , the results show that social trust, at the individual level, indeed can affect political trust which, in this article, is divided into trust in the motivation of political authorities and trust in institutions. In addition, the level of social trust tends to influence more on the trust people have in those administration-oriented institutions than on people's trust in those highly political-oriented institutions.