ABSTRACT
An institution under serious attack should re-examine its pact with society (Merton 1973; Olsen 2005). For Western governments, this could begin by understanding how widespread citizen mistrust of bureaucracies – especially in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis – comes with overtures to private sector brilliance as guardians of the public good. In the United States, a heroic federal bailout to mitigate the fallout of the crash was like a tree in the forest that nobody heard fall (see Mettler 2011). Wall Street investors let the government become the face of the crisis, and the bailout and fiscal stimulus that would have cushioned the crisis’ impact on the middle class were subsequently branded as interference with the market, a reverse Robin Hood robbery, or a failed strategy for economic recovery. Western corporations, after taking momentary heat from the “Occupy” movement, sprang back and portrayed themselves as victims whose better ideas for economic revival were being suppressed by newly tightened financial regulations. But public trust on all things governmental has already soured in many countries.
