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In Mistrust We Trust
A recent Gallup poll listed the most- and least-trusted professions in America. At the bottom of the car salesmen and members of Congress. It's not hard to understand why our politicians rate so poorly — scandals, myopia, obstinence, party loyalty over common good, fiscal cliffs. All have left voters exasperated and confused. But while confidence in our elected leaders has never been lower, we cling to the belief that democracies represent they epitome of societal and political organization. Why? In his provocative book "In Mistrust We Can Democracy Survive When We Don't Trust Our Leaders", political commentator Ivan Krastev explores this incongruity between our head and our heart. There has been a profound decline of the public’s trust in the performance of public institutions, he notes, which is an outcome of the voters’ sense of their lost power. Tech tools may help provide some openness to the machinations of the political machine, but they may just be putting a band-aid on an open wound. Ultimately, Krastev ponders whether we can enjoy the many rights of our society, without enjoying real political choice or power. Simply can democracy survive without trust?
71 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
12 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
Ivan Krastev
44 books171 followersIvan Krastev (Bulgarian: Иван Кръстев, born 1965 in Lukovit, Bulgaria), is a political scientist, the chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, permanent fellow at the IWM (Institute of Human Sciences) in Vienna, and 2013-14-17 Richard von Weizsäcker fellow at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Berlin.
He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group and is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.
From 2004 to 2006 Krastev was executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans chaired by the former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Edition of Foreign Policy and was a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (2005-2011).
His books in English include "After Europe" (UPenn Press, 2017), "Democracy Disrupted. The Global Politics on Protest" (UPenn Press, May 2014), "In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don't Trust Our Leaders", (TED Books, 2013); "The Anti-American Century", co-edited with Alan McPherson, (CEU Press, 2007) and "Shifting Obsessions: Three Essays on the Politics of Anticorruption" (CEU Press, 2004). He is a co-author with Stephen Holmes of a forthcoming book on Russian politics.
He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group and is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.
From 2004 to 2006 Krastev was executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans chaired by the former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Edition of Foreign Policy and was a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (2005-2011).
His books in English include "After Europe" (UPenn Press, 2017), "Democracy Disrupted. The Global Politics on Protest" (UPenn Press, May 2014), "In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don't Trust Our Leaders", (TED Books, 2013); "The Anti-American Century", co-edited with Alan McPherson, (CEU Press, 2007) and "Shifting Obsessions: Three Essays on the Politics of Anticorruption" (CEU Press, 2004). He is a co-author with Stephen Holmes of a forthcoming book on Russian politics.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 4, 2014
In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don’t Trust Our Leaders by Ivan Krastev
"In Mistrust We Trust" is a provocative book about the nature of our present disappointment with democracy. According to intellectual Ivan Krastev this disappointment comes from the voters’ sense of lost power. The book is more about the questions it asks than the answers it provides. This stimulating 71-page book is broken out in three parts.
Positives:
1. Interesting and provocative topic. Worthy of a TED Talk.
2. Global politics.
3. Book is infused with some great quotes. “And it was none other than Winston Churchill who dryly observed that ‘the best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average.’”
4. A very interesting look at democracy. “What we are witnessing in all this is not the end of democracy but, rather, its radical transformation.”
5. The changing role of politics. “Politics has been reduced to the art of adjusting to the imperatives of the market.”
6. A lot of focus on the diminishing power of the voter. “In short, the voter has lost the capacity to counterbalance the power of the market in the name of a shared public interest.”
7. One quote that captures our current American political system. “Democracy has been turned into a game of chicken, in which preventing the other side from governing is more important than governing yourself.”
8. Defining what a democracy in crisis is. “A democracy that constantly changes its governments but fails to correct its dysfunctional policies is a democracy in crisis. A democracy in which public conversation has lost its capacity to change opinion and in which debate is reduced to a confirmation of existing ideological biases is a democracy in crisis.”
9. The five revolutions that have shattered our world in the last half-century.
10. So what makes democracy so attractive? Find out.
11. Trends of inequality of disposable income. “For instance, by 2011, 20 percent of the U.S. population owned 84 percent of the total wealth of the country. And this disparity exists not only in the U.S. All over the world, globalization has led to the decline of inequality between states but the increase of inequality within nations.”
12. An interesting look at the elites. “The new elites are self-confident because they are not only mobile but often refuse to see themselves as a part of a wider society. In times of crisis, they do not lead the community but leave it.”
13. This book in a nutshell. “Citizens are losing trust in democratic institutions not because these institutions are less efficient or more corrupt, but because we have lost our power to influence them.”
14. The power of smartphones. Probably the best part of this brief book. Many great examples. “In Russia, the legitimacy of the Russian Orthodox Church was undermined when a blogger posted a photo on Facebook showing the patriarch donning an expensive watch, and it declined further when Russians learned that the patriarch’s public relations team doctored videos to conceal this fact from the public.”
15. An interesting discussion on transparency. “The transparency movement embodies the hope that a combination of new technologies, publicly accessible data, and fresh civic activism can more effectively assist people to control their representatives.” “Inundating people with information is a time-tested way to keep people uninformed.”
16. So what brings change? Find out.
17. The importance of trust. “It is this basic trust that allows society to advance. This is why democracy cannot exist without trust and why politics as the management of mistrust will stand as the bitter end of democratic reform.”
Negatives:
1. The writing style is uneven and some thoughts lack lucidity. A lot of interesting thoughts and observations but the overall book lacked a smooth flow.
2. The parts are greater than the whole.
3. Krastev has some great quotes and provides provocative ideas but missed opportunities to build on them.
4. A section on the science of trust would have added value.
5. No formal bibliography.
In summary, a very provocative topic and some keen observations. A lot of substance in a small book but it’s communicated in an uneven manner. Some missed opportunities aside; there is also a lot to like in this book. The book is full of great quotes and the section on the power of smartphones is worthy of a book on its own. The book provides a great topic for a TED Talk and it’s worthy of your time. I recommend it.
Further recommendations: “Lesterland: The Corruption of Congress And How to End It” by Lawrence Lessig, “The Solution Revolution” by William D. Eggers & Paul MacMillan, “Price of Inequality” by Joseph Stiglitz, “Winner Take All” by Dambisa Moyo, “The Post American World” by Fareed Zakaria, "That Used to be Us” by Thomas L. Friedman, “War on the Middle Class” by Lou Dobbs, “Screwed” by Thom Hartmann, “Merchants of Doubt” by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway, and “The Spirit of Democracy” by Larry Diamond.
"In Mistrust We Trust" is a provocative book about the nature of our present disappointment with democracy. According to intellectual Ivan Krastev this disappointment comes from the voters’ sense of lost power. The book is more about the questions it asks than the answers it provides. This stimulating 71-page book is broken out in three parts.
Positives:
1. Interesting and provocative topic. Worthy of a TED Talk.
2. Global politics.
3. Book is infused with some great quotes. “And it was none other than Winston Churchill who dryly observed that ‘the best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average.’”
4. A very interesting look at democracy. “What we are witnessing in all this is not the end of democracy but, rather, its radical transformation.”
5. The changing role of politics. “Politics has been reduced to the art of adjusting to the imperatives of the market.”
6. A lot of focus on the diminishing power of the voter. “In short, the voter has lost the capacity to counterbalance the power of the market in the name of a shared public interest.”
7. One quote that captures our current American political system. “Democracy has been turned into a game of chicken, in which preventing the other side from governing is more important than governing yourself.”
8. Defining what a democracy in crisis is. “A democracy that constantly changes its governments but fails to correct its dysfunctional policies is a democracy in crisis. A democracy in which public conversation has lost its capacity to change opinion and in which debate is reduced to a confirmation of existing ideological biases is a democracy in crisis.”
9. The five revolutions that have shattered our world in the last half-century.
10. So what makes democracy so attractive? Find out.
11. Trends of inequality of disposable income. “For instance, by 2011, 20 percent of the U.S. population owned 84 percent of the total wealth of the country. And this disparity exists not only in the U.S. All over the world, globalization has led to the decline of inequality between states but the increase of inequality within nations.”
12. An interesting look at the elites. “The new elites are self-confident because they are not only mobile but often refuse to see themselves as a part of a wider society. In times of crisis, they do not lead the community but leave it.”
13. This book in a nutshell. “Citizens are losing trust in democratic institutions not because these institutions are less efficient or more corrupt, but because we have lost our power to influence them.”
14. The power of smartphones. Probably the best part of this brief book. Many great examples. “In Russia, the legitimacy of the Russian Orthodox Church was undermined when a blogger posted a photo on Facebook showing the patriarch donning an expensive watch, and it declined further when Russians learned that the patriarch’s public relations team doctored videos to conceal this fact from the public.”
15. An interesting discussion on transparency. “The transparency movement embodies the hope that a combination of new technologies, publicly accessible data, and fresh civic activism can more effectively assist people to control their representatives.” “Inundating people with information is a time-tested way to keep people uninformed.”
16. So what brings change? Find out.
17. The importance of trust. “It is this basic trust that allows society to advance. This is why democracy cannot exist without trust and why politics as the management of mistrust will stand as the bitter end of democratic reform.”
Negatives:
1. The writing style is uneven and some thoughts lack lucidity. A lot of interesting thoughts and observations but the overall book lacked a smooth flow.
2. The parts are greater than the whole.
3. Krastev has some great quotes and provides provocative ideas but missed opportunities to build on them.
4. A section on the science of trust would have added value.
5. No formal bibliography.
In summary, a very provocative topic and some keen observations. A lot of substance in a small book but it’s communicated in an uneven manner. Some missed opportunities aside; there is also a lot to like in this book. The book is full of great quotes and the section on the power of smartphones is worthy of a book on its own. The book provides a great topic for a TED Talk and it’s worthy of your time. I recommend it.
Further recommendations: “Lesterland: The Corruption of Congress And How to End It” by Lawrence Lessig, “The Solution Revolution” by William D. Eggers & Paul MacMillan, “Price of Inequality” by Joseph Stiglitz, “Winner Take All” by Dambisa Moyo, “The Post American World” by Fareed Zakaria, "That Used to be Us” by Thomas L. Friedman, “War on the Middle Class” by Lou Dobbs, “Screwed” by Thom Hartmann, “Merchants of Doubt” by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway, and “The Spirit of Democracy” by Larry Diamond.
September 15, 2018
Vše, co jste chtěli vědět o příčinách současné krize demokracie a báli jste se zeptat. Ivan Krastev patří k nejzajímavějším politickým teoretikům dneška a má navíc tu výhodu, že píše velmi srozumitelně.
July 12, 2023
An alarming and thought-provoking development of some ideas that have already bothered me, and some new ones I'd never considered before, about the state of democracy and political debate in the era of smartphones and mass traceability. Succinct, well written, easy to read.
February 20, 2015
Ivan Krastev paints a bleak picture of the current state of democracy around the world. He argues that we so deeply mistrust our democratic institutions that it's unclear what a corrective path forward looks like.
In Mistrust We Trust builds off Ivan's 2012 TED talk in which he makes an abbreviated version of his argument based on five revolutions he identifies as contributing to the transformation of democratic society. First, the cultural and social revolution of the sixties destroyed the idea of a collective purpose by increasing individualism. This was followed by the market revolution of the 1980s whereby we saw a huge increase in inequality—decoupling the reduction of inequality with the spread of democracy for the first time. Then there was the end of Communism and the Cold War, which tore social contract between elites and the people in Eastern Europe. Then, the internet revolution, which brought echo chambers and political ghettoes—making it more difficult to understand people who aren’t you. Finally, Ivan points to the brain sciences revolution as arming political consultants with the knowledge that emotional manipulation is more powerful than ideas.
While the theory of revolutions is interesting and worth reflecting on, the most compelling part of the book is Ivan's critique of transparency as a political religion riddled with inaccurate assumptions of how to "manage mistrust" in government. He argues that in fact we are fostering mistrust by trying to keep our representatives honest through monitoring, in other words we are assuming that control over others is equal to trust.
Without public trust democracy doesn't work and a sustained campaign of transparency will only make it worse. We can't simply design a foolproof system of good governance because that's insufficient to convince us it is foolproof; it will merely press us to inspect it closer, confident we will find corruption lurking.
Ivan warns readers at the beginning of the book that it will not offer answers or solutions. It is a provocation. And I think it is an important one, especially for the civic activists and technologists in my circles. In some ways, Ivan is calling for the community-based and community-building efforts we celebrate in participatory design. BUT, if those efforts are always in opposition to and alternative from public institutions, rather than attempts to build them up into something we can believe in again, will things just keep getting worse?
A short, thought-provoking "must" read.
In Mistrust We Trust builds off Ivan's 2012 TED talk in which he makes an abbreviated version of his argument based on five revolutions he identifies as contributing to the transformation of democratic society. First, the cultural and social revolution of the sixties destroyed the idea of a collective purpose by increasing individualism. This was followed by the market revolution of the 1980s whereby we saw a huge increase in inequality—decoupling the reduction of inequality with the spread of democracy for the first time. Then there was the end of Communism and the Cold War, which tore social contract between elites and the people in Eastern Europe. Then, the internet revolution, which brought echo chambers and political ghettoes—making it more difficult to understand people who aren’t you. Finally, Ivan points to the brain sciences revolution as arming political consultants with the knowledge that emotional manipulation is more powerful than ideas.
While the theory of revolutions is interesting and worth reflecting on, the most compelling part of the book is Ivan's critique of transparency as a political religion riddled with inaccurate assumptions of how to "manage mistrust" in government. He argues that in fact we are fostering mistrust by trying to keep our representatives honest through monitoring, in other words we are assuming that control over others is equal to trust.
Without public trust democracy doesn't work and a sustained campaign of transparency will only make it worse. We can't simply design a foolproof system of good governance because that's insufficient to convince us it is foolproof; it will merely press us to inspect it closer, confident we will find corruption lurking.
Ivan warns readers at the beginning of the book that it will not offer answers or solutions. It is a provocation. And I think it is an important one, especially for the civic activists and technologists in my circles. In some ways, Ivan is calling for the community-based and community-building efforts we celebrate in participatory design. BUT, if those efforts are always in opposition to and alternative from public institutions, rather than attempts to build them up into something we can believe in again, will things just keep getting worse?
A short, thought-provoking "must" read.
April 16, 2013
RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN. (No. Please don't!)
"...while America used to talk about itself as the greatest nation in the world, in reality 'we are seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in the median household income, No. 4 in labor force, and No. 4 in exports. We lead the world only in three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined.' "
If the quote above isn't depressing enough for you, stay tuned. Krastev has enough pessimism to more than convince you that not only is the glass half-empty but that there are, in fact, no more glasses and no more refreshment left in life of which for them to be half-empty, anyway.
Great brilliance probably lies deeply buried in the convoluted double-speak ("In mistrust we trust"; "Is every unveiling not, at the same time, a veiling of another sort?" ) of Ivan Krastev's TED talk and TED book, IN MISTRUST WE TRUST: Can Democracy Survive When We Don't Trust Our Leaders?. But it eludes me. His major premises: that democracy requires an element of trust, that as a citizenry becomes better informed it also becomes more cynical and apathetic; and that the cyber-age emphasis on 'transparency' is a double-edged sword; while likely valid (so what?), need not lead to the hopelessness and despair he offers.
Recommendation: If you must read this one (and you really needn't), please keep all instruments of suicide-assistance at a safe distance. Krastev (cheerfully?) admits to being from the group of folks statistically determined to be the least happy people on earth. He's convinced me.
"Political communities have lost their relevance to our lives. Now the followers of political parties are just one form of social group among the multitude of expressionistic groups living on the Web"
TED book.
"...while America used to talk about itself as the greatest nation in the world, in reality 'we are seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in the median household income, No. 4 in labor force, and No. 4 in exports. We lead the world only in three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined.' "
If the quote above isn't depressing enough for you, stay tuned. Krastev has enough pessimism to more than convince you that not only is the glass half-empty but that there are, in fact, no more glasses and no more refreshment left in life of which for them to be half-empty, anyway.
Great brilliance probably lies deeply buried in the convoluted double-speak ("In mistrust we trust"; "Is every unveiling not, at the same time, a veiling of another sort?" ) of Ivan Krastev's TED talk and TED book, IN MISTRUST WE TRUST: Can Democracy Survive When We Don't Trust Our Leaders?. But it eludes me. His major premises: that democracy requires an element of trust, that as a citizenry becomes better informed it also becomes more cynical and apathetic; and that the cyber-age emphasis on 'transparency' is a double-edged sword; while likely valid (so what?), need not lead to the hopelessness and despair he offers.
Recommendation: If you must read this one (and you really needn't), please keep all instruments of suicide-assistance at a safe distance. Krastev (cheerfully?) admits to being from the group of folks statistically determined to be the least happy people on earth. He's convinced me.
"Political communities have lost their relevance to our lives. Now the followers of political parties are just one form of social group among the multitude of expressionistic groups living on the Web"
TED book.
April 8, 2013
I throughly enjoyed this book, it summed up the dissatisfaction I think a lot of my generation feel with government institutions.
October 30, 2016
Provoking, unpretentious, succinct.
November 20, 2016
An alternative to reading the news and a decent short commentary on the current deplorable situation.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews