Expanding Citizens' Democratic Participation As the Context for Earning the Public's Trust‪.‬

Introduction Trust is an essential component of interactions among individuals in social and political settings. Without adequate levels of trust, relations among individuals would become unhealthy, dysfunctional, strained, unequal, abusive, and could eventually be severed. In the absence of trust, relations can be maintained only through coercion, fear, and at best, through manipulations and false pretences. The same is true of the societal settings. Relations in business firms, business partnerships, social organizations, political parties, political alliances, and governments would become strained, dysfunctional, or fall apart altogether in the absence of trust among the parties involved. At the societal level, once people lose their trust in government, the government is doomed. The only way for it to survive would be to resort to coercive and repressive measures.