Managing Trust: A Comparative Historical Study of Political Accountability in Australia.
Grant number: DP0771800
Abstract
Some Australian political leaders have acknowledged a crisis in their trust relationship with voters and seek ways to fix it. By historicising the 'crisis of trust' thesis, and testing its assumptions, I expect to demonstrate that, far from being alienated from voters, representatives both reflect and shape society's notions of trustworthiness. This knowledge offers political leaders new ways of approaching their relationships with voters in order to redress the trust dilemma. It also provides fresh, more positive ways of conceptualising trust relations generally, offering a way forward from the present cynicism, for a variety of trust relationships to be made anew.