Political Trust in Italy: How Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors Shape Confidence in Parties

is a general evaluation tool for gauging corporation and government commitment to sustainability, ethical governance, and social equity. ESG is a tool for responsible business improvement, environment protection, and social integration, and for harmonization with society at large. How political trust and ESG interrelate will depend on a variety of institution, economy, and society factors, and for these reasons, Italy is a useful case study, with its regionality and diversity of regions, with Northern Italy having increased economic development, efficient institution, and political stability, and Southern Italy with its increased difficulty in terms of economy, low institution trust, and poor governance infrastructure. With such a divide, questions arise regarding trust in political parties and its impact, for example, on ESG adoption and, in reverse, ESG practice and its impact, one such hypothesis being that increased political trust will stimulate ESG through a secure institution environment in which companies and governments can practice long-term programs in terms of sustainability with public support. Areas with high political party trust can have effective ESG policies, with political stability undergirding investments in governance and sustainability. In less political trust areas, institution doubt can counteract ESG development, with less effective governance and less accountability for companies. There is a counter view that effective ESG development can actually generate political trust. Where governments and companies actively promote ESG values, citizens can perceive political institutions to be more responsible, transparent, and concerned with social and environment welfare. Trust in political parties supporting and putting ESG-related policies into practice could increase through such a perception. On the other hand, when ESG policies become cosmetic and symbolic, trust in politics will not be restored and could even become eroded, when citizens perceive such programs for sustainability as political rhetoric and not real improvements in governance (Gamalerio, 2020; Maccaferri and Mammone, 2022; Gavana et al., 2022; Robinson, 2022).