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May 11, 2007
trust and participation
This is just to illustrate my argument from last Wednesday. I claimed that we cannot have massive new government programs without public trust, unless the programs are very simple and transparent--which is virtually impossible in the case of health care. The necessary trust has eroded, in part because people don't belong to participatory groups that seek their voluntary support and that influence the state. Unions are a major example of such groups.
This graph cannot demonstrate a causal relationship among the three trends: falling trust, declining union membership, and declining participation at the local level. But I hypothesize a connection.
By the way, this graph is my belated response to a comment by David Moore, which I had missed.
May 11, 2007 12:07 PM | category: none