Trust, Democracy, and Public Management: A Theoretical Argument

Declining trust is one of the central problems in modern politics. Recent theorists, however, are sharply divided between those who see trust as the consequence of rational, calculative , behavior and those who consider it a normative concept better explained in the context of culture and societal values. This article makes the case for the latter perspective. The noncalculative approach rests on two premises: values and norms influence behavior along with self-interest, and a public interest exists as something different than simply the sum of all private interests. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of this view for the theory and practice of public administration.