Missed it but this might be worth keeping in mind:
We live in challenging times – as our knowledge grows we see the world (and our problems) in a more complex light. And our decision-making also becomes more complex.
People need to feel assured that even though the decision-making of government will not always serve their interests as well as they would like a democratic system will act in their interests over time and deliver collective benefits such as peace security and economic development.
Democracies rely on the micro social processes of trust and hope for their functioning.
Valerie Braithwaite holds a professorial appointment in the Regulatory Institutions Network at ANU where she studies psychological processes in regulation and governance. One main theme is identifying institutional practices that generate defiance undermining the individual’s capacity and willingness to cooperate in core facets of social life from family and school to work and governance. Of primary interest are practices that fail to respect social values challenge the stress and coping capabilities of individuals induce poor shame management skills and frustrate basic needs.
This presentation focuses on a project that examines the role of trust and hope in governance. The central hypothesis is that trust and hope build social capacity and enable cooperation. At the heart of the project is motivational posturing theory. Motivational posturing theory explains responses to government authority of disengagement game playing resistance capitulation and commitment as ways of dealing with the sacrifice of individual freedom. Between 1999 and 2005 these issues were addressed within the context of taxation: What makes people accept the obligation to pay tax even when it is possible to evade or avoid payment? (http://ctsi.anu.edu.au). More recently a series of surveys have been conducted to examine the ways in which citizens’ posture to government and government postures to citizens (http://demgov.anu.edu.au).