Making trust: three common places

Abstract

A persistent topic in current debates about the evils of democracy and the prospects of democratization is the need to carry out policies that promote trust and close the gap between citizens and institutions. In some contexts, like those of countries where transition to democracy is not yet entirely achieved, or in the field of international relations, this is an overwhelming priority. This paper presents a modest analysis of some standard recipes to restore trust that are typically discussed in contemporary political science, which are based, respectively, on transparency, participation, and virtue. The main conclusion is that all of them deliver results that are below their expectations. Thus, I argue that to restore the fair balance between trust and distrust it is necessary to take a step back and reshape our priorities looking at the recovering of the capabilities needed by the subject to judge when and how trust responsibly, or, on the contrary, distrust..