Trust in Regulatory Intermediaries: The relative Importance of Cues, Attitudes, Direct Experience and Influence

Regulatory regimes are complex networks of actors and functions. Trust between these actors is necessary for both the public mission of the regime and the private goals of the actors. We ask, how do regime actors decide on the trustworthiness of regulatory intermediaries, a less well-known and less central actor in regulatory regimes, and which mediate between the regulators and the regulatees? We focus our empirical observation on, more precisely, certification and accreditation actors. Our empirical analysis cover three different policy regimes data protection, finance and food safety sectors) in six countries with different politico-administrative features. Two broad trust theories guide analysis. In the first, that we call evaluative trust, trust decisions are based on cognitive evaluation, rational, evidence based and involve risk-analysis. The second is that of trust transference where trust decisions are made on the basis of the broader trust attitudes of the trustor and cues from other trust relations in the regime. Our analysis reveals that trustworthiness of the national regulatory agency, as well as actors’ trust others in general, have crucial effect on trust in regulatory intermediaries