Ungrounded faith in government benefits the powerful, not the faithful

Evidence

To give an account of trust in government on analogy with trust in individuals requires two classes of argument. First, we must give an account of the trustworthiness of government agents. Second, we must account for the knowledge citizens are likely to have of such trustworthiness. In the second account, the central problem is the translation of individual-to-individual relationships to individual-to-group or individual-to-institution relationships. What is called trust in government may in fact be something short of trust as we experience it in interpersonal relations. This is confidence, or what we might call quasi trust. It is based on reasons for believing government agents to be trustworthy, reasons that do not involve direct relationships with the quasi trusting citizen. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 703 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Trust in government is really quasi-trust or confidence, not trust — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 703; Revolutionary regimes attract blind faith, not grounded trust; Trust in government is not a major working factor in modern society (+5 more)

Related

• Trust in government is really quasi-trust or confidence, not trust (similarity 0.90)
• Governments cannot satisfy the encapsulated-interest account of trust. (similarity 0.89)
• Trusting a government is not analogous to trusting another person. (similarity 0.88)
• Survey ‘trust in government’ reduces to confidence, not interpersonal trust (similarity 0.86)
• Trust in government is trust in capacity, unlike interpersonal trust (similarity 0.84)
• Citizens cannot trust government because they lack knowledge of its trustworthiness (similarity 0.84)
• Declining trust in government reflects trustworthiness, not citizen psychology (similarity 0.84)
• Governments work when citizens do not actively distrust them. (similarity 0.84)
• Government being trustworthy matters more than the public trusting it. (similarity 0.84)
• Ungrounded faith in government always serves interests worse than grounded expectations do (similarity 0.83)
• Trust in government is not a major working factor in modern society (similarity 0.83)
• Declining trust in government stems from increased knowledge, not worsened performance (similarity 0.83)
• Past government abuse justifies wary distrust of any officials (similarity 0.82)
• Trust in practical capacity outweighs trust in politicians’ good intentions (similarity 0.82)
• Institutionalized government stabilizes citizens’ inductive expectations, not strong trust (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Trust in government is really quasi-trust or confidence, not trust #corroborates (0.85) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 703
• Distrust of government is easier to ground rationally than trust #corroborates (0.85)
• Survey ‘trust in government’ reduces to confidence, not interpersonal trust #corroborates (0.85)
• Revolutionary regimes attract blind faith, not grounded trust #corroborates (0.82)
• Trusting a government is not analogous to trusting another person. #corroborates (0.80)
• Trust in government is not a major working factor in modern society #corroborates (0.78)
• Trust in practical capacity outweighs trust in politicians’ good intentions #expands (0.72)