Widespread trust decomposes into pockets of particular trusting relationships rather than generalized trust

Evidence

Trust as encapsulated-interest rules out the possibility or coherence not only of generalized trust but also of widespread trust by any individual. If there is widespread trust, it is therefore of the form that lots of people trust other particular people. That is to say, there are pockets of trusting relationships, and possibly almost everyone is included in such pockets. Alternatively, it may be that a typical individual is involved in various relatively small networks in which each trusts the others with respect to some range of issues. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 803

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies how encapsulated-interest theory can accommodate ‘widespread trust’ without endorsing generalized trust — a key conceptual distinction for the reader’s Luhmann/Hardin integration.
• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s stated goal: in Saramago’s blindness epidemic, the wife’s trust envelope collapses to a tiny pocket (the doctor, the ward group), illustrating that social order rides on small encapsulated-interest networks at the limit. — connects to: Global impersonal markets rest on personal trust and telephone networks; Widespread civility and flourishing civil society reduce to shared personal trust