Mistrust of government is a healthy, intended feature of democratic design.
Evidence
To be clear, delegitimation is not the same as mistrust. Mistrust of government is a perennial feature of democracy. It should be. It is an article of political faith that abuse of power is always a possibility and warrants vigilance. Rarely is undiluted trust possible, and nowhere in public life is it desirable. Liberal democracy is designed to provide assurances, circumscribing authority by means of laws, institutional checks, mechanisms of accountability, and transparency. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 84
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to trust literature: mistrust as designed-in institutional feature rather than failing; parallels readings on impersonal trust and institutional checks (Social Control of Impersonal Trust). — connects to: Distrusting government openly is a distinctively modern democratic innovation — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 504; Mistrust is democratic, delegitimation assaults democracy — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 86; Distrust of government is easier to ground rationally than trust (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Distrusting government openly is a distinctively modern democratic innovation
#expands(0.85) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 504 - Mistrust is democratic, delegitimation assaults democracy
#corroborates(0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 86 - Distrust of government is easier to ground rationally than trust
#corroborates(0.75) - Stable open government with countervailing institutions is needed to stimulate trustworthiness
#contradicts(0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 519 - Endemic distrust of government is best cured by weakening government itself
#complicates(0.72) - Government being trustworthy matters more than the public trusting it.
#contradicts(0.72) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 702 - Legitimate government conceives power as a mutually observed trust
#qualifies(0.70) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1182