República, Confiança e Sociedade

Abstract

This article discusses the issue of trust as a central element for structuring virtuous institutions under a republican order. The article argues that trust can be a central concept for republican thinking, since in the contemporary world the issue of virtues is based on the excellency not of citizens, but of political institutions. As opposed to the idea of interpersonal trust, the article deals with another aspect of the trust issue, defended by modernization theory. According to Simmel's positions and John Dewey's democratic experimentalism, the argument presents another modality of the trust issue as social cement and the central element in the construction of the Republic in contemporary politics.