Ironically, such societies are so successful in stifling unauthorized trust they often disintegrate or implode. The Sources of Trust Democracy is subject to its own discontents. Govier writes of the need to share knowledge and our trust of knowledgeable professionals as prerequisites for a functioning free community. We have developed institutions that rely on good will and positive imagery to sustain economic growth and social integrity. Unfortunately, the pursuit of profit and the exploitation of our social urges have undermined social trust in western democracies.
Cynicism is a prevalent malaise.
Govier seems to be somewhat surprised by this phenomenon although she does give a good rationale for the alienation of governing elites from their subject publics as an expression of it. Ours is a community that has manipulated and misused public expectation so outrageously that reflexive skepticism should be the anticipated outcome. Furthermore, the global village confirms our suspicions by waving the evidence of unreliability in our faces. Dramatic demonstrations of human frailty or bland but mounting evidence of ordinary incompetence are all grist for the mill. We have taken away the room to hide and the time to reflect on the meaning of betrayal.