Contractual trust fails where state enforcement is sporadic

Evidence

Somalis spoke of spies, people listening and watching who could report you to al-Shabaab. They could be your neighbors, colleagues, friends, or family. The collapse of a social contract that had once let people feel in control of their lives had wrecked every part of Somali life. Once trust was gone between citizens and their leaders, it slowly vanished among the citizens themselves, and then that distrust corroded the bonds even between people who knew each other intimately. — Alexis Okeowo, A Moonless, Starless Sky, 251 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Contract law enforces promises only when stakes are high and reliance is costly; Kinship-based trust fails when its sanctioning institutions do not migrate; Trustworthiness enforced only by contract threats is not genuine trust (+5 more)

Related

• State collapse corroded trust even between intimate acquaintances (similarity 0.85)
• Legal exemptions destroy state predictability, which erodes communal trust. (similarity 0.81)
• A single event dissolved a long-standing neighborly relationship into expulsion (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Kinship-based trust fails when its sanctioning institutions do not migrate #corroborates (0.82)
• State collapse corroded trust even between intimate acquaintances #exemplifies (0.78) — Alexis Okeowo, A Moonless, Starless Sky, 251
• Trustworthiness enforced only by contract threats is not genuine trust #expands (0.75)