The current economic crisis is among others
a crisis of trust. Re-building trust is possible by inculcating good personal
behavior and making institutional decisions based
on ethical values and virtues. The following article shows the meaning and
implications of this perspective and the steps which
can help to build trust.
The international crisis of 2007-2010 was not only a financial, economic, political
and systemic crisis, it was also a crisis of trust
in leaders and institutions: If globally leading banks get bankrupt, if highly paid
stock exchange brokers are in jail, if well
recognized rating agencies are dismantled, if
politicians are involved in corruption scandals
and confidential reports of the diplomats are leaked, if media companies become
partisans of political parties and special interests,
if priests are accused of sexual abuse of minors, if governments are replaced because
the citizens feel that they are incompetent, then it is almost always an expression of
mistrust in leaders and institutions.
This lack of trust cannot be surpassed by cheap justifications by the accused,
by public relations activism to repaint the
façade or by only replacing a famous figure. It
needs a deeper transformation of persons and institutions.
Trust is the ability to be in a relation and to start an interaction with a person or
an institution due to the firm reliance on the latter's integrity, honesty, ability or
character. Trust is the basis of every relation
and interaction, be it in the case of a couple or
in the case of trade relations, financial transactions, diplomatic relations
and international agreements. There is also a
direct, measurable economic benefit of trust:
Trust reduces the transaction costs in economic and human relations. But trust almost
by definition includes also the risk of its abuse. |
