For Commentary

Social contract theory holds that political authority is legitimate only to the extent that it fulfills the terms of an implicit agreement between citizens and the state. Locke's argument that government exists to protect natural rights, and that citizens may withdraw consent when government fails to do so, provides the foundational logic for Trust as a political value.

Douglass North's argument that institutions, the formal and informal rules that govern human interaction, are the primary determinant of economic performance, and Elinor Ostrom's research on how communities build and maintain trust-based governance of shared resources, provide the empirical foundation for Trust's political claims.

The rule of law tradition, from Dicey's constitutional principles through Lon Fuller's 'inner morality of law' to Joseph Raz's formal requirements of legality, establishes the conditions under which legal systems generate and maintain trust. Fuller's argument that law must be general, public, prospective, and consistently enforced describes the institutional requirements of political trust.