Governments cannot satisfy the encapsulated-interest account of trust.

Evidence

To give an account of trust in government on analogy with trust in individuals requires two classes of argument. First, we must give an account of the trustworthiness of government agents. Second, we must account for the knowledge citizens are likely to have of such trustworthiness. In the second account, the central problem is the translation of individual-to-individual relationships to individual-to-group or individual-to-institution relationships. What is called trust in government may in fact be something short of trust as we experience it in interpersonal relations. This is confidence, or what we might call quasi trust. It is based on reasons for believing government agents to be trustworthy, reasons that do not involve direct relationships with the quasi trusting citizen. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 703 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Trusting a government is not analogous to trusting another person.; Baier argues encapsulated-interest trust falsely requires abilities infants lack.; Enforced sanctions under governments underwrite all ordinary trust (+5 more)

Related

• Trusting a government is not analogous to trusting another person. (similarity 0.90)
• Ungrounded faith in government benefits the powerful, not the faithful (similarity 0.89)
• Citizens cannot trust government because they lack knowledge of its trustworthiness (similarity 0.88)
• Trust in government is really quasi-trust or confidence, not trust (similarity 0.88)
• Government being trustworthy matters more than the public trusting it. (similarity 0.84)
• Governments work when citizens do not actively distrust them. (similarity 0.84)
• Declining trust in government stems from increased knowledge, not worsened performance (similarity 0.83)
• Most citizens hold inductive expectations about government rather than grounded trust (similarity 0.83)
• Trust requires presumptive knowledge that most citizens lack about officials. (similarity 0.83)
• Declining trust in government reflects trustworthiness, not citizen psychology (similarity 0.83)
• Trust in government is trust in capacity, unlike interpersonal trust (similarity 0.83)
• Institutionalized government stabilizes citizens’ inductive expectations, not strong trust (similarity 0.83)
• Distrust flows from assessing incentives, but trust in government rarely can (similarity 0.83)
• Distrust of government is easier to ground rationally than trust (similarity 0.82)
• Survey ‘trust in government’ reduces to confidence, not interpersonal trust (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Trust in government is really quasi-trust or confidence, not trust #expands (0.88) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 703
• Citizens cannot trust government because they lack knowledge of its trustworthiness #expands (0.85)
• Trust belongs to knowledge, so it cannot be offered, demanded, or withheld #corroborates (0.80)
• Governments work when citizens do not actively distrust them. #qualifies (0.75)