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Political theorists claim that political trust is located on the continuum that runs from blind faith to enforceable contract. Trust ‘as passion’ borders on blind faith, while trust ‘as calculation’ comes close to enforceable contract. More often located between these extremes, political trust is usually a mix of faith and calculation, varying from largely irrational responses to the charisma of political leaders to largely calculated ‘bets on the actions of others’. This chapter discusses political distrust in post-Communist Europe and looks at four broad categories of potential influences (all negative) on political trust: distrustful citizens, untrustworthy institutions, discordance between citizens and government, and hard times. It also examines incompetence, scandal, dishonesty, and corruption; responsiveness and fairness; the untrustworthiness of elected and unelected officials; and the unfairness that citizens perceive or actually experience.

This chapter examines the origins and early history of the private petition, focussing on the final two decades of the late 13th century. The chapter is split into two subsections: the first subsection identifies the point when private petitions first appeared in volume in parliament, and the second subsection considers the pressures and incentives that induced the crown to invite petitioners to parliament. This second section, in particular, considers the political and legal significance of the introduction of large scale petitioning in parliament. It suggests that Edward I's hand was forced by the legacy of political distrust and local discontent that he had inherited from Henry III's reign, but that inviting his subjects to bring their complaints to parliament also had advantages for the crown. In this respect, the discussion focuses particularly on the ways in which petitioning facilitated the growth and extension of royal authority into the localities.

Californians know they are living in the midst of historic growth and change, and they are clearly worried about it. More than 80 percent of residents said in the surveys that they expect their regions to grow either fast or modestly in population over the next ten years. This chapter looks beyond 2000 and offers some general ideas about how forces such as political distrust, racial and ethnic change, and regional diversity are likely to play out in the state's political and policy process. Some recommendations are offered that will help the state find better ways to cope with the many challenges looming before it.

Why bother about the rise of diploma democracy? We discuss the consequences of diploma democracy for each of the elements of democracy—representation, responsiveness, accountability, and legitimacy—that we distinguished in Chapter 3. Descriptive representation matters for symbolic, heuristic, and democratic reasons. The over-representation of university graduates in parliament is simply not in line with the preferences of large parts of the electorate. Moreover, educational background is not politically neutral. Different levels of education may lead to diverging preferences and standards, particularly with regard to cultural issues. Because the higher educated are over-represented among political participants and politicians, the political agenda tends to be biased towards their priorities and preferences. This may cause cynicism and distrust. A diploma democracy may not remain stable if large parts of the population feel they are no longer represented politically, and if they have no hope of being able to improve their social position.

Since the end of World War Two, many European countries have received hundreds of thousands of immigrants. This chapter provides a brief overview of post-World War Two migration to European countries, focusing on trends and sources of migration to the various regions of Europe. It also briefly discusses government policy responses to these trends. The chapter then examines public responses to immigration and summarizes what is known about why some are more positive about immigration while others are more negative. The chapter discusses the gap between public opinion regarding immigration and immigration policy (the so-called ‘gap hypothesis’), which helps to identify a potential key cause of political distrust—i.e., that governments continually fail to take public opinion regarding immigration into account, leading to long-standing concern about immigration and perceptions of government failure in handling this policy area.