The Role of Trust in Democratic Politics

In electoral politics, the role of trust can be defined in the claims by political parties where they promise to provide the voters better options and alternatives than the party in power. The language of trust, thus, makes sense when it is used as a device to mobilise voters using anti-incumbency as a plank. Thus, the language of trust would constitute a rhetorical slogans such as the removal of poverty, or the more abstract slogan like a self-reliant India, or a promise of a vocal, efficient, and clean government. Thus, governmental power is conceived as trust both by parties seeking power and those voters who elect such parties into power. Trust, therefore, becomes a common moral framework within which both the ruled and ruler could be poised to create a “legitimate” political society.

However, in such political societies, the word “trust” also has its twin: betrayal. What was promised at the first instance during the election campaign in most cases does not get fulfilled by the parties in power. The betrayal of trust by the ruling party could be understood at least in two important respects.