At the most extreme change in government, as after a major social revolution, the problem of establishing stable expectations may make reducing distrust nearly impossible for a while. Tocqueville (1955 , 176) notes the seeming paradox that typically a revolution intended to improve things initially makes things worse. Many might have faith in the new regime because they think it represents their interests, and they might therefore say they trust the regime. They might continue to have such faith even after arduous years of failure, as in the Stalinist years in the Soviet Union, when the virtual deification of Stalin was evidently effective in many parts of the population. This would not be grounded trust, although it might be an unusual case of what some philosophers call trust as blind faith.

XREF: Connects to Tocqueville's observation about revolutions making things worse before better, a classic paradox in political theory.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 768