To bring trust of government into political theory requires a microlevel account of how government works at the macro level. This must largely be an account of rational expectations of what government and its agents are likely to do. In the encapsulated-interest account, I must know that the agents or the institution act on my behalf because they wish to maintain their relationships with me. That is generally not possible for government and its officials.

XREF: Contrasts the personal, relationship-based encapsulated-interest trust model with impersonal institutional trust in large-scale governance.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 717