ABSTRACT
Having undertaken a close textual analysis, we also need to consider the historical contexts within which these observed political uses of trust are practically meaningful. We find that the quite different Hobbesian and Lockean problematics of political trust still frame, to an extent, contemporary thought. Drawing from Burke and Mill, representation is still frequently regarded as a form of trust. Trust as a key concept of political theory was challenged by thinkers such as David Hume, however, and so interests and liberty took centre-stage. Consequently, the rise of trust in the neoliberal era needs explanation, and this is found in social capital theory and in Giddens’ concept of ‘abstract trust,’ which apply to complex networked systems. As we move into the internet age, the ways in which people understand and practice trust undergoes yet another significant transformation.
