Question

The United States has served as a "model" of democracy for the rest of the world, yet a number of countries have expressed distrust in the American government. Can democracy exist without trust? Do you think this is possible? Why or why not?

Answer 1

At a conceptual level, trust plays a pivotal role in democracy. When citizens put forward their approval for a particular political candidate, there is an underlying assumption that one’s chosen candidate will live up to one’s expectation and may perhaps even exceed it. This would work very well if there were sufficient choices to rest one’s final decision. However, the practice of democracy gives the voters very little to choose from. Instead of asking, “Who’s the best candidate?”, voters now seem to be making decisions based on “Who’s not the worst candidate?”. Given this political scenario, I do believe that democracy can exist without trust.