Trust
Cement of Democracy?
edited by F.R. Ankersmit and H. Te Velde
The last twenty years have witnessed the world-wide triumph of democracy. We now know that democracy is the only political system that enables us to face the challenges of modernity and of the future. But we also know that democracy is more than democratic institutions alone. Democracy must also somehow be inscribed in the hearts of the citizens. What, then, are the socio-psychological demands of democracy? There is near to unanimous agreement that trust is decisive here: democracy can only thrive in a society of citizens prepared to trust each other and acting on the belief that mutual benefits are to be expected from co-operation. Thus far research has preferred to focus on trust between private citizens or groups of private citizens. The political dimension of trust has only rarely been addressed. The present collection of historical and theoretical studies attempts to fill this lacuna. It answers the question of why and under what circumstances citizens will trust or distrust the democratic state. It also addresses a paradox of democracy: democracy needs the ‘cement of trust’, but trust should not be given unconditionally.
The last twenty years have witnessed the world-wide triumph of democracy. We now know that democracy is the only political system that enables us to face the challenges of modernity and of the future. But we also know that democracy is more than democratic institutions alone. Democracy must also somehow be inscribed in the hearts of the citizens. What, then, are the socio-psychological demands of democracy? There is near to unanimous agreement that trust is decisive here: democracy can only thrive in a society of citizens prepared to trust each other and acting on the belief that mutual benefits are to be expected from co-operation. Thus far research has preferred to focus on trust between private citizens or groups of private citizens. The political dimension of trust has only rarely been addressed. The present collection of historical and theoretical studies attempts to fill this lacuna. It answers the question of why and under what circumstances citizens will trust or distrust the democratic state. It also addresses a paradox of democracy: democracy needs the ‘cement of trust’, but trust should not be given unconditionally.
- Edited by FR Ankersmit
- Edited by H Te Velde
Other Titles in this Series
Commonplace Culture in Western Europe in the Early Modern Period III
Legitimation of Authority
Volume 41
Cultural Mediators
Artists and Writers at the Crossroads of Tradition, Innovation and Reception in the Low Countries and Italy 1450-1650
Volume 31
Lady Macbeth’s Sisters
Women's Power in Political Elites in the Transition from Monarchy to Democracy
Volume 43
Believers in the Nation
European Religious Minorities in the Age of Nationalism (1815-1914)
Volume 52
The Beloved Mothertongue
Ethnolinguistic Nationalism in Small Nations: Inventories and Reflections
Volume 33
Nobilities in Europe in the Twentieth Century
Reconversion Strategies, Memory Culture, and Elite Formation
Volume 50
Understanding Art in Antwerp
Classicising the Popular, Popularising the Classic (1540-1580)
Volume 45
Language and Cultural Change
Aspects of the Study and Use of Language in the Later Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Volume 24
Invisible Hands?
The Role and Status of the Painter's Journeyman in the Low Countries c.1450 - c.1650
Volume 23
Transnationality, Internationalism and Nationhood
European Avant-Garde in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Volume 48
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