Dictator

• But if you’re one of the distrustful majority, that may not be such a bad thing.
• In a 2021 survey, just 24.5% of respondents across OECD, countries said they trust political parties.
• National polls repeatedly show similar results, particularly in the wake of scandals involving politicians misbehaving.
• Self-evidently, trustworthy leaders are preferable – but that doesn’t mean trusting them unconditionally once they’re in power.

Trust isn’t a ‘thing’

• But there’s no optimal survey result, and no one should expect complete trust.
• People talk metaphorically of “building” trust, but trust isn’t a “thing” that’s literally broken and rebuilt.
• Political trust is about an underlying “deal” that keeps a society together and functioning.
• People disagree about whom to trust, and judgment will partly depend on which politicians promote the policies people prefer.

Government is a work in progress

• But leadership and government are themselves problems about which people have debated for millennia, with still no universally agreed solution in sight.
• It’s worth noting, for example, that in China, most people tell pollsters that they trust their government.
• There may be disagreements about how best to govern, but all states practice, by necessity, some form of government.

• As there’s no handy administrative formula for political trust, such personal and political self-examination has to persist.
• Telling surveyors that you don’t trust politicians is a gentle and valid form of political resistance.

Grant Duncan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.