In this episode, we continue our exploration of trust theory with a conversation about how we should understand political trust and trustworthiness. We look at how we might understand trust in this specific context. Our guest scholar is Dr. Margaret Levi, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

Dr. Levi is also Senior Fellow, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the former Sara Miller McCune Director and current Faculty Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute, and co-director of Ethics, Society and Technology at Stanford University. Additionally, she is Jere L. Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. She held the Chair in Politics, United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, 2009-13. At the University of Washington she was director of the CHAOS (Comparative Historical Analysis of Organizations and States) Center and formerly the Harry Bridges Chair and Director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies.

Levi is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and six books, including Of Rule and Revenue (University of California Press, 1988); Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism (Cambridge University Press, 1997); Analytic Narratives (Princeton University Press, 1998); Cooperation Without Trust? (Russell Sage, 2005), In the Interest of Others (Princeton, 2013), and A Moral Political Economy (Cambridge, 2021). She explores how organizations and governments provoke member willingness to act beyond material interest.

Professor Levi has written extensively on trust, but these publications provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic:

Levi, M., & Stoker, L. (2000). Political trust and trustworthiness. Annual review of political science, 3(1), 475-507.

Levi, M. (2022). Trustworthy Government: The Obligations of Government & the Responsibilities of the Governed. Daedalus, 151(4), 215–233. 
The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com