Trust

Can we trust our elected representatives or is public life so
corrupted that we can no longer rely on governments to protect our
interests or even our civil liberties? Is the current mood of
public distrust justified or do we need to re-evaluate our
understanding of trust in the global age?

In this wide-ranging book, Russell Hardin sets out to dispel the
myths surrounding the concept of trust in contemporary society and
politics. He examines the growing literature on trust to analyze
public concerns about declining levels of trust, both in our fellow
citizens and in our governments and their officials.

Hardin explores the various manifestations of trust and distrust
in public life - from terrorism to the internet, social
capital to representative democracy. He shows that while
today's politicians may well be experiencing a decline in
public confidence, this is nothing new; distrust in government
characterized the work of leading liberal thinkers such as David
Hume and James Madison. Their views, he contends, are as relevant
today as they were in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and
we should not, therefore, be distressed at the apparent distrust of
twenty-first century government. On a personal level, Hardin
contends that the world in which we live is much more diverse and
interconnected than that of our forebears and this will logically
result in higher levels of personal trust and distrust between
individuals.

Written by one of the world's leading authorities on trust, this
book will be a valuable resource for students of government and
politics, sociology and philosophy.