Domestic Institutional Trust and EU Membership Support in Candidate Countries: Evidence from Albania and Serbia

This article challenges the conventional assumption that domestic political trust and support for European integration reinforce one another. It examines whether low trust in domestic political institutions coexists with strong support for the EU in aspirant countries. The study employs a comparative case study design, drawing on nationally representative Balkan Barometer surveys (2017–2023), complemented by Eurobarometer data. This design is to compare patterns of institutional trust and support for EU membership in Albania and Serbia. The article proposes the substitution logic of the political trust analytical framework, demonstrating its relevance through a comparative analysis of Albania and Serbia. The findings suggest that the observed coexistence of low domestic institutional trust and strong support for EU membership is consistent with the proposed substitution logic of political trust.