The rationality of trust is ineliminable from any agency-based conception of politics

Evidence

In so far as a political life is conceived exclusively in terms of manipulation and ideological befuddlement, the issue of trust need not feature prominently within it. But even in this vision those whose role it is to manipulate and befuddle will in practice face the constant problem of how to concert in carrying out their venture. In so far as politics is conceived at all in terms of agency, the cooperative and strategic interaction of individuals and groups, the issue of the rationality of trust is ineliminable from it. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1165

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Hardin’s trust theory: even manipulative rulers face a coordination problem among themselves, which is the baseline collective-action problem the reader is building toward.