Political Trust

In the ten years of the 1990s, trust has attained a key position in the theory of social science. Scholars of Sociology, political science, philosophy, economics, management science, computer science, have spent a lot of time and energy on investigating the "trust". It has made trust become a hot subject researched by multi-discipline scholars. The research of political trust, as a branch of trust research, starts with reacting to loss of the resources of trust in government in US at the beginning of 1960s. Because of the particularity, compared to the research of social trust, the research of political trust is still unsystematic and young. And there is little research in this subject in domestic academe. In the new era, many countries are still suffering from the loss of political trust. The resources of trust in government are also very important for Chinese government in realizing the grand social programs of building a well-off society in an all-round way.This dissertation has five chapters, which expounds the following issues on the problem of political trust: the theory of trust, the basic theory of political trust, the operational mechanism of political trust, the status of the resources of trust in government in some western countries in modern times, the resources of trust in government in our country from 1949.The first chapter first analyses the difference of the theory of trust between Chinese classic works and western tradition. Then I give a definition of trust on the fruit of research by many famous scholars and explore the types of trust. The theory in chapter I aims at providing the basis of the further research of political trust.The second chapter studies the basic theory of political trust. After comparing the concepts of trust between people and government, political trust, the resources of trust in government, political legitimacy, political support, I generalize the particularity of political trust and then point the necessity of political trust. The basic theory of government is also necessary for our research. Finally, I analyse the difficulties of the theory in political trust and try to formulate an ideal condition, in which public ownership of means of production, democracy, limited government can all exist in one country. In such a condition, political trust can emerge in plenty.The third chapter explores the operational mechanism of political trust. The subject is a central content in the research of political trust. First I research the process of political trust from the process of trust and from the structural element in political trust. Then I reviewed the existed theory model of political trust.Finally, I present some theory models of the process of political trust comprised of two theory types of angle of view and five models.The fourth chapter remarks on the status of the resources of trust in government in US, South Korea, Japan, and Poland before transformation. We observed that the resources of trust in government in US have been reducing, but the reason and the consequence is still not clear. There is a surprising picture in South Korea and Japan with the coexistence of modernization of economy and lagged political culture. This condition results the low level of the resources of trust in government. It is the wrong path and the wrong policies that speedup the crisis of political trust in Poland before transformation.The last chapter reviews the changes of the resources of trust in government in our country after 1949.I think that the level of the resources of trust in government was in plenty and the resources of trust in government mainly based on the communist ideology inspired by the charms of Chairman Mao before china reform in 1978. After 1978, the main basis of the resources of trust in government has been changed. This switch is smoothly. People trust government according to the governmental performance before the middle of 1990s. Now the function of reallocation by government is the key thing that government gains trust from people after the middle of 1990s.