1st Edition

The Problem of Political Trust A Conceptual Reformulation

By Grant Duncan Copyright 2019
    180 Pages
    by Routledge

    180 Pages
    by Routledge

    Trust has been the subject of empirical and theoretical inquiry in a range of disciplines, including sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, public policy and political theory. The book approaches trust from a multi-disciplinary scope of inquiry. It explains why most existing definitions and theories of trust are inadequate.

    The book examines how trust evolved from a quality of personal relationships into a critical factor in political institutions and representation, and to an abstract and impersonal factor that applies now to complex systems, including monetary systems.

    It makes a distinctive contribution by recasting trust conceptually in dialectical and pragmatic terms, and reapplying the concept to our understanding of critical issues in politics and political economy.

    1. The Uses of Trust

    2. Re-describing Trust

    3. Trust’s Political Genealogy

    4. Transformations of Trust

    5. Money. Trust in Action?

    6. Hegel and Nietzsche

    7. Trust With or Without Conditions

    8. Conclusions

    Biography

    Grant Duncan is a scholar of political theory and public policy, and a political commentator, living in Auckland, New Zealand. His previous work on pain and on happiness, linking subjective states with political aims and public institutions, can be found in Economy & Society, Journal of Happiness Studies, and The Monist.