Broad social trust arises only in aristocracies, which then undermine it.

Evidence

I have argued that a socially extensive trust cannot be created except in and by what I have called ‘aristocracies’; that having been so created, there is good reason to believe that the aristocrats will undermine it; and that if trust is to be maintained, this will have to depend either on conditions which are external to the social arrangements in question or on strategies which are internal and which, although perhaps directed by what could be called an ‘aristocracy’, might at first sight seem to preempt anything one would want to describe as ‘trust’ at all. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1663

Categorization

• XREF: Maps onto the doctor’s wife as sole guarantor of order in Saramago — a lone sighted ‘aristocrat’ in a blind society. Also parallels Hardin’s point that trust needs enforceable constraints rather than raw familiarity. — connects to: Socially extensive trust requires an aristocracy to create it, which then undermines it; Thick trust cannot extend beyond small groups except via mystified elite authority — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 219; Socially extensive and enduring trust is inherently difficult to create — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1499 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Sharpens the distinction between external conditions and internal strategies for sustaining trust, a key theoretical vocabulary for the synthesis.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1663

Broader Connections

• Socially extensive trust requires an aristocracy to create it, which then undermines it #corroborates (1.00)
• Thick trust cannot extend beyond small groups except via mystified elite authority #qualifies (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 219
• Socially extensive and enduring trust is inherently difficult to create #expands (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1499
• Anarchism’s defining weakness is its capricious account of trust’s incidence #complicates (0.72)