Distrust, American style : diversity and the crisis of public confidence

"In this informative analysis, political scientist Sheila Suess Kennedy examines contending explanations of our conflicted national psyche: some social scientists and critics have made convincing claims that growing diversity and the breakdown of community interaction is the cause of this erosion of trust. Drawing on extensive research, Kennedy concludes that the problem doesn't lie with neighbors who don't look like us or a lack of community spirit but with our inability to rely upon the proper functioning of our governing and social institutions." -- BOOK JACKET

Contents include: "Trust me" said the spider -- Pluralism and the paradigm problem -- Distrust, American style -- Government : our institutional infrastructure -- Betrayal of trust -- The trust gap : who trusts, who "turtles," and why? -- Being all we can be : three modest proposals.