Jay's Pirouette, or Why Political Trust is Not the Same as Personal Trust

Contemporary social and political theorists have addressed the problem of trust in a manner not satisfactory to the development of administrative theory. This article critiques the rational choice theories of trust as well as those theories that depict trust as dependent on widely shared values. It presents instead a version of "political trust" and argues that trust in the political realm derives from confidence in the institutions and processes of government as well as public officials as individuals. Institutional design and its success in balancing discretion and accountability is identified as the problem of trust in the administrative state.