Trust in people, confidence in political institutions, and satisfaction with democracy

Abstract

In claiming that ‘Mutual trust lies at the heart of all political processes’, the political philosopher John Dunn (1993: 641) reasserts a theme going back at least to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, and coming from them to us through the writings of de Tocqueville, Simmel, Tonnies, Durkheim, Weber, Parsons, Coleman, and Luhmann.1 In recent years, the theme has been reformulated in a powerful form by writers of the social capital school. According to them, social trust is the central element in a complex virtuous circle in which a set of attitudes, such as mutuality, reciprocity, and trust, are associated with social participation and engagement in community and civic affairs; these help to build the social and political institutions necessary for democratic and efficient governments; in turn, these create the conditions in which social and political trust can flourish. At the individual level, trust is the cornerstone ‘habit of the heart’, which is associated with a climate of social trust that enables citizens to cooperate with each other, build a common identity, and pursue common goals. At the structural level, effective community organisations, especially voluntary associations, are an essential part of the social framework necessary to build the social, economic, and political institutions of modern democratic society.