Protective institutions reduce the trustworthiness we must demand of fellow citizens

Evidence

Government generally protects us against the worst that might happen so that we may take risks on modest cooperative ventures. Even while we are often wary of government and its agents, we rely on them to reduce the need for trustworthiness in many realms that government regulates or otherwise oversees. We rely on contract law and court enforcement to achieve successful cooperation in contexts in which, without such protective institutions, we would not risk cooperating with others. Similarly, instead of relying on purely individual trust in individuals to handle monetary relations, for example, we use banks. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 513

Categorization

• XREF: The counterfactual here — remove the protective institutions and cooperation collapses — is exactly the Hobbesian scenario Saramago depicts when blindness voids governmental oversight. The wife’s sightedness restores a minimal ‘protective institution’ role. — connects to: Responsive institutions require citizens virtuous enough to press new claims