ABSTRACT
The existence of trust is an essential component of all human relationships. On the most general and abstract level it can be stated that the need for enduring, stable, and universally recognized structures of trust is rooted in the fundamental indeterminacy of social interaction. This focus on the changing nature of trust in modernizing societies is indeed not surprising given the extraordinary importance of a universal basis of trust in modern, democratic societies. On the institutional level the workings of trust in society can be viewed as limitations placed on the free exchange of resources. It is within this broad theoretical context that author must situate the contemporary terms of trust existing in those east central European societies now in the middle of a crucial transition from state socialism to a market-regulated and democratic regime. The reigning definitions of individual identity are still to a large extent collective and rooted in the solidarity of particular ethnic or religious groups.
