Abstract
Some years ago the noted novelist E. M. Forster (1965, 70) gave “Two Cheers for Democracy”: “… one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. Two cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three. Only Love the Beloved Republic deserves that.” Perhaps there is a reason for a third cheer. Democratic societies are trusting societies. The big pay-off from generalized trust, most contemporary observers say, is that it leads to “better” government and to a public that is happier with government performance. Or maybe good government makes people more likely to trust each other. Or perhaps both.
I gratefully acknowledge the support of the General Research Board of the University of Maryland—College Park and the Everett McKinley Dirksen Center for the Study of Congressional Leadership. Most of the data I employ were obtained from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, which is absolved from any responsibility for my claims. I owe debts of gratitude for comments and conversations to Gabriel Badescu, Dennis Chong, Karen Dawisha, Paul Dekker, Marc Hooghe, Ronald Inglehart, Margaret Levi, Jane Mansbridge, Jeffrey Mondak, John Mueller, Joe Oppenheimer, Robert Putnam, Bo Rothstein, Tara Santmire, Dietlind Stolle, Shibley Telhami, Mark Warren, and Yael Yishai. This chapter is adapted from parts of chapter 8 of Eric M. Uslaner (2002). The Moral Foundations of Trust. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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© 2003 Marc Hooghe and Dietlind Stolle
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Uslaner, E.M. (2003). Trust, Democracy and Governance: Can Government Policies Influence Generalized Trust?. In: Hooghe, M., Stolle, D. (eds) Generating Social Capital. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403979544_9
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