Democratic accountability uniquely enables mutual trust between citizens and governors.

Evidence

If there were trust in government, most or even all of it would be oneway trust. Elected officials might be involved in mutual trust with their constituents, especially if the constituencies are small, as in the republican cities of Renaissance Italy. In principle at least, a unique appeal of democratic government is that, because elected officials can be held accountable, such government creates the possibility for mutual trust between citizens and governors, which makes much less sense in a nondemocratic government. Either one-way or mutual trust might seem to license the officials to act on behalf of their constituents without having constantly to canvass their views or to seek their approval. (However, even officials who are not elected, whole agencies of government, and the government itself might earn quasi trust, which is one-way.) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 711

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the concept of ‘quasi trust’ as one-way trust, distinguishing it from genuine mutual trust.
• XREF: Accountability as the substrate enabling trust—mirrors the reader’s framework where observability (accountability) underwrites the familiarity needed for trust, connecting to the doctor’s wife as the sole accountable overseer in Saramago. — connects to: Local governments close to the environment hold expertise and accountability advantages — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 186