Explaining the Democratic Trust Conundrum: The Sources of Institutional Trust in the Reunited Germany‪.‬

Introduction Democracies depend on trust more than any other form of government, but they are also the most successful at earning the trust of their citizens. Paradoxically, democratic governments try to engender trust by institutionalizing distrust into the structures of government. (1) Yet surprisingly, in many countries, citizens most trust the one political institution that controls their lives, but that they themselves cannot democratically control: their constitutional court. The important question of how and why this democratic trust conundrum occurs has so far remained unanswered despite our increasing knowledge about trust and the growing policy-making powers of constitutional courts.