I argue that, in any strong sense of trust, trust in government is not a major consideration in the working of a modern society. A claim to trust government is typically implausible if it is supposed to be analogous to a claim to trust another person.

XREF: Connects to broader literature on institutional vs. interpersonal trust, and to the author's overall argument about how modern societies actually function. QUESTION: What does the author propose as the real basis of modern societal functioning if not trust in government? Worth pursuing in the surrounding argument.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 697