Trust and Democracy

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Abstract
Democracy and trust have an essential but paradoxical relationship to one another. Democracies depend on trust among citizens, enabling them to depend upon one another. Trust in governments enables citizens to provide collectively conditions for good lives. Yet the institutions of democracy were founded on distrust, especially of the powerful. What kinds of trust does a democracy need? How can we balance the distrust of power essential to democracy with the kinds of trust necessary for good lives? This chapter provides an analysis of trust from the standpoint of the normative and functional requirements of democratic political systems.

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