Indeed, some amount of trust must be present in any complex economic system, and it is far from inconceivable that systems with a higher level of general trust could come about. It would be risky, however, to make higher levels of trust into a cornerstone of economic reform. We may hope that trust will come about as the by-product of a good economic system (and thus make the system even better), but one would be putting the cart before the horse were one to bank on trust, solidarity and altruism as the preconditions for reform.

QUESTION: This raises the question: if trust follows good institutions, what first enables the institutions to be good without preexisting trust? A bootstrap problem worth chasing.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 2773