Israeli, US gov'ts ignore that they have lost the trust of the public - opinion
Trust is a foundation of our society and economy. People are trusting. But lie to them, cheat them, deceive them, manipulate them – and their trust is gone.
Yearly average levels of trust in all institutions as a whole, compared with overall multi-year average(photo credit: ISRAEL DEMOCRACY INSTITUTE)BySHLOMO MAITAL
Israel and the US differ in every possible way – size, culture, politics, language, religion. But we share one desperate crisis: Citizens of each country have lost faith in their nation’s institutions. This trend is longstanding in both, and it threatens the social glue that binds and unifies each country’s citizens. Yet the crisis of broken trust is being dangerously ignored in both countries.
In the 1960 US presidential campaign, the Democratic Party ran an ad with a photo of the Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon. The caption: “Would you buy a used car from this man?” By a very narrow margin, voters answered “No” and elected John F. Kennedy. JFK won with 34,226,731 popular votes compared to Nixon’s 34,108,157 votes – a margin of only 118,574. The ad proved very effective, focusing on mistrust in what Nixon said and did. It may have been crucial.
In the end, when we vote we affirm that we trust and believe in the candidates we chose. And on August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned in ignominy, having betrayed the trust of the American people and facing impeachment for Watergate.
Julian Simon, a noted US economist and close friend of mine, became famous by showing how the world never has, never can, and never will run out of essential resources, such as oil. Long before the supply peters out, he showed, market forces cause the price to rise steeply, thus incentivizing the search for substitutes (such as solar energy, wind, and other sources). This is in general true. But there is one key resource that is in desperate short supply, and no substitutes for it exist.
Trust. Trust is the foundation of business, society, and democracy. Trust in our leaders. In the courts. Trust in the armed forces. Trust in big business. And trust in one another. Trust has bee broken.
Israelis' trust in state institutions (credit: ISRAEL DEMOCRACY INSTITUTE)
Historical lows: For the US, in 2022 the Gallup Poll reported that “this year’s poll makes new lows in confidence for all three branches of [US] federal government: Supreme Court (25% only trust it); the presidency (23%); and Congress.” Even organized religion (31%), newspapers (16%), criminal justice (14%), big business (14%), and the police are not trusted.
For Israel, the Israel Democracy Institute reported in 2021 that only 41% had trust in the Supreme Court, 34% in the police, 25% in the media, 10% in political parties, 27% in the government, and 21% in the Knesset.
But in the wake of the October 7 disaster, Times of Israel reported that “trust in the country’s political institutions has largely broken down,” according to the Israel Democracy Institute survey. Understandably, even faith in the IDF declined. However, there is one place in which trust thrives as never before – among IDF combat soldiers. There, it is a matter of life and death.
And now the clincher: Times of Israel reported that a survey by Bar-Ilan University and iPanel found that “less than 4% of the Jewish Israeli public believed that the prime minister was a reliable source of information on the war in Gaza.” One person in 25 believes him. And among right-wing voters, one person in 16 believes him.
We are fighting an existential war on several fronts, led by a prime minister whose electorate does not trust him.
I believe there is no more urgent task facing us in Israel and the world in general than to identify the social causes of broken trust and mistrust, and fix them. Without trust in our leaders, democracy crumbles, society falls apart, and the politics of grievance replaces the politics of hope and joy. The rancor of the Tower of Babel replaces the harmony of the Garden of Eden.
Mistrust is general suspicion or doubt. Distrust is specific, relating to what is said, what is done, and why. In the realm of trust in our institutions, mistrust has evolved into distrust, in both Israel and the US.
US President Joe Biden said in his 2021 UN address, this is “the first time in 20 years that the United States is not at war.”
Israel, in contrast, has been in a multi-front war for over 11 months, led by a leader and government we do not trust – a leader who flies in an expensive platinum plane (Wings of Zion) but from whom I (and I believe most Israelis) would not buy a used car.
“Together we will win” rings rather hollow these days. When we distrust our leaders, we distrust one another. The way back to credence is a long, arduous pilgrim’s progress. I am hopeful we will make it. Because we must. ■
The trust game
Economists, psychologists, and social scientists in general disagree strongly about trust. Neoclassical economists think people are driven by rational self-interest and hence trust others little. Psychologists have proved otherwise. In the trust game, invented by psychologist Joyce Berg, two players, A and B, are given some money. A is told to give some sum to B and that whatever he gives will be tripled. B is told similarly to give some amount of the tripled amount back to A.
Economists assume rational self-interest and predict that A will give B nothing. This is called the Nash equilibrium. In the actual results, 30 out of 32 players who played A gave B slightly more than half their money. On average, B also gave back more than he received. Trust is a foundation of our society and economy. People are trusting. But lie to them, cheat them, deceive them, manipulate them – and their trust is gone. Getting it back is Herculean.
The writer heads the Zvi Griliches Research Data Center at S. Neaman Institute, Technion. He blogs at www.timnovate.wordpress.com.
