Party reputations substitute for direct knowledge in democratic trust

Evidence

In developed democracies, party reputations serve as a shortcut for both voters and potential parliamentary partners, establishing both the credibility of party claims and their attractiveness as coalition partners. Yet the communist successors did not have an established democratic record, and so had to rebuild their reputations. In the meantime, their communist past largely determined the parties’ image and their credibility. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 73

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels how pre-state traders substituted reputational shortcuts and third-party institutions for direct knowledge of partners — reputation as information shortcut across both democratic politics and stateless trade. — connects to: Expertise from an authoritarian past made successor parties valuable yet discredited partners — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 1229; Assessing another’s trustworthiness requires direct or reputational knowledge — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 182; Trustworthiness is easier to explain than trust and generates trust as knowledge (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Reputation effects can substitute for direct iterated exchange in producing trustworthiness #corroborates (0.85) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 151
• Assessing another’s trustworthiness requires direct or reputational knowledge #expands (0.82) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 182
• Trustworthiness is easier to explain than trust and generates trust as knowledge #expands (0.75)