If you have ungrounded faith in me, that might benefit me (but not you) by getting you to do things for me out of misplaced trust. If you have ungrounded faith in our government, that would benefit me only if that government happens to serve my interests fairly well and if, as we may assume, your faith in the government helps to license its actions and reduces the chance of its being successfully challenged by you and similarly placed others.

XREF: Connects to critiques of institutional legitimacy and social contract theory, where consent licenses state power.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 742