Trust in large-scale government should focus on capacity, not intentions.

Evidence

In speaking of government, John Dunn (1988, 90) supposes we should choose Bernard Barber’s (1983) trust in capacity, rather than trust in good intentions, in large-scale politics. (Throughout this book, I assume that both elements must be met for trust, although, as noted at the outset, I have not constantly addressed the potential problems of lack of capacity.) This “trust in capacity” is a substantially different meaning from the usual sense of “trust” in interpersonal relations, where it includes concern with both competence and intentions. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 773

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘trust in capacity’ versus interpersonal trust in intentions, a key distinction for the trust literature.
• XREF: Ties directly to the reader’s purpose: capacity-based trust in the state relates to how the wife’s competence (sightedness) substitutes for intention-based trust in Saramago.