Contemporary debates on polarization, fake news, and conspiracy theories have made us rediscover the existential relevance of trust for democracy. In the six double Friday sessions of the seminar, participants should acquire the analytic tools to understand, with clarity and precision, the structure of trust and its opposites (distrust and enemyopia, which is, the perception of others as enemies), its many faces, and the multiple roles it plays in democratic politics.
On Day 1 we will be reviewing the concept of trust (its structure, types of relations, domains, grounds, and opposites) on the basis of a paper on “Basic Democratic Trust” which I ask you to read in preparation for the seminar. On Day 2 we will seek to clarify the ambiguous relation between democracy and trust. We will also review prevalent empirical perspectives in the study of trust. On Day 3 we will reflect on sources of trust (norms vs interests) and the corresponding dynamics of trust creation and destruction. In the remaining sessions, we will discuss three fundamental locations along the continuum of trust: the positive pole of trust (Friday 4), the intermediate situation of distrust (Friday 5), and the negative pole of enemyopia (Friday 6).
The literature on social and political trust is immense and the seminar cannot provide but a glimpse of it. Yet, it should enable participants to understand the basic structure of arguments about trust and trustworthiness and to analyze the extant literature on trust as well as existing realities of trust in clear, critical, and creative manner.
On Day 1 we will be reviewing the concept of trust (its structure, types of relations, domains, grounds, and opposites) on the basis of a paper on “Basic Democratic Trust” which I ask you to read in preparation for the seminar. On Day 2 we will seek to clarify the ambiguous relation between democracy and trust. We will also review prevalent empirical perspectives in the study of trust. On Day 3 we will reflect on sources of trust (norms vs interests) and the corresponding dynamics of trust creation and destruction. In the remaining sessions, we will discuss three fundamental locations along the continuum of trust: the positive pole of trust (Friday 4), the intermediate situation of distrust (Friday 5), and the negative pole of enemyopia (Friday 6).
The literature on social and political trust is immense and the seminar cannot provide but a glimpse of it. Yet, it should enable participants to understand the basic structure of arguments about trust and trustworthiness and to analyze the extant literature on trust as well as existing realities of trust in clear, critical, and creative manner.
- Instructor: Andreas Schedler