Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them

by Ethan Zuckerman

The rise of mistrust is provoking a crisis for representative democracy―solutions lie in the endless creativity of social movements. From the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, and from cryptocurrency advocates to the #MeToo movement, Americans and citizens of democracies worldwide are losing confidence in what we once called the system. This loss of faith has spread beyond government to infect a broad swath of institutions―the press, corporations, digital platforms―none of which seem capable of holding us together. The dominant theme of contemporary civic life is mistrust in institutions―governments, big business, the health care system, the press. How should we encourage participation in public life when neither elections nor protests feel like paths to change? Drawing on work by political scientists, legal theorists, and activists in the streets, Ethan Zuckerman offers a lens for understanding civic engagement that focuses on efficacy, the power of seeing the change you make in the world. Mistrust introduces a set of "levers"―law, markets, code, and norms―that all provide ways to move the world. Zuckerman helps readers understand what relationships they want to have with existing institutions―Do they want to hold them responsible and make them better? Overthrow them and replace them with something entirely new? While some contemporary leaders weaponize mistrust to gain power, activists can use their mistrust to fuel something else. Today, many people are passionate about making positive change in the world, but they feel like the "right" ways to make change are disempowering and useless. Zuckerman argues that while it may be reasonable to dispense with politics as usual, we must not give up on changing the world. Often the best way to make that change is not to pass laws―it’s to change minds. Mistrust is a guidebook for those looking for new ways to participate in civic life, as well as a fascinating explanation of how we’ve arrived at a moment where old ways of engagement are failing us.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Technology, Sociology

304 pages, Paperback

Published May 17, 2022

About the author

Ethan Zuckerman is the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media. A media scholar, Internet activist, and blogger, he lives in Lanesboro, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Cereal]

I found this book unexpectedly very interesting. As the author says at the beginning, nothing he writes is new, but the way he puts it all together feels clarifying and inspiring

[Rishabh Khanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understood the sentiment passed by the book in first few pages and after that the same idea is being repeated with same examples again and again. The book describes why people have mistrust in the existing institutions especially of government. The examples taken for research are good enough to prove the point however author takes only those as example which have brought a change and were needed. Certain mistrust movements were motivated by poltical motives or have been seeded by big corporates to influence goverment policies. Those have not been described or discussed. I feel these are nice examples for showing mistrust umong corporates or oppositions.
Largely the book discusses the importance of pressure groups which I feel are important part of democracy.
However, I do share an opposite viewpoint on Modi government. The author calls it autocratic government. Which is right to some extent but that is only autocratic because at this time India is lacking a string opposition party and pressure groups.
I feel the book could have been a little short by trimming repeation of examples.

[Nicholas Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, though I must admit the beginning didn’t grip me beyond a lot of frequent online discourses. As the book went, I think it got more topical and delved into a range of novel areas around mistrust, many of which I hadn’t thought about before, and then it really gripped me. Recommended!

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book, thinking of incorporating this into a course next year.

[Christopher Conner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zuckerman begins his exploration of mistrust and insurrection at a monument to Shays's rebellion on the edge of a cornfield in Massachusetts. From there the historical examples of mistrust, insurrection, and what he much later describes as "resurrection" of social institutions fall wayside for a book written for the here and now. In the more contemporary frame there is no shortage of examples for mistrust and responses to mistrust (at times it gives too much of a center of gravity to Donald Trump's relevance to the discussion). The book doesn't necessarily lack for omitting a more historical lens but its shelf life may be limited for how very present tense its examples are. If the discussions in Mistrust were bananas they would be neither wonderously green or spotted brown--it's ripe and ready, or just becoming so. Everyone has their own taste for bananas but give Mistrust another couple years and readers will need to extend its shelf life by re-constituting it into banana bread. Though the themes and arguments Zuckerman advances in Mistrust may endure, the many stories and examples will date themselves rapidly. The reach of Mistrust (the book) is not far to the past or far to the future but gives some unique texture to now--and that's ok. People will likely talk about the "four levers" of change he defines for some time: Markets, Norms, Code, Law.

If there were something additive to offer, I wish that a concept of "service" would've been investigated or developed among those fundamental levers of change. Zuckerman gets close as he wraps up chapters about the essentiality of "do something" and the importance of efficacy to organizing within spheres of mistrust. Maybe it is unfair to classify "service" which is a doing/means alongside the other four levers which are perhaps more strategic levers than tactical ones. Maybe I am wishing that service was a lever--painting the field as I would like it to be.

[Tyler Germaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an incredibly easy to comprehend, yet complete dive into a very specific time in our country’s history. Very much taken from Zuckerman’s viewpoint and bias (which I think reflects a lot of leftist readers), the book takes a look into an era in which trust for the government is significantly lower in America and much of Europe than ever before. Using a plethora of examples leading up to the COVID pandemic, he guides the reader through a long history of events chipping away at trust in the institutions we rely on daily, all while providing several solutions or bandages experts from all over the world have implemented in reaction.

This book is fairly limited in its longevity, but I take that as a strength. Given the significance of the time we are in, it’s important to have a book such as this focus its self into this time. It captures with great detail the exact emotional state the people of this country have been experiencing.

With that being said, I do hope there will be a second edition or a follow up as there’s been many events since the release of this book that I would love to hear Zuckerman’s interpretation on. Specifically with the George Floyd protests, the election of Biden (and subsequent falling of trumps party), the continued fight of COVID two years later, and the January 6th insurrection.

I see this book as an incredibly insightful look into the dissonance between people and government during a profound era in America’s history. The farther you get from 2020 (when the book was written and release) the harder it’ll be to relate to some passages, but I believe the general idea will hold relevancy. And eventually will become a marking of the thinkings held during 2020. I am now a fan of Ethan Zuckerman and I look forward to reading more of his books.

[Shannon Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very timely book (at times almost too much so). Full disclosure - I’m a casual friend with the author and his acknowledgments are full of many mutual friends - in social network terms we have overlapping networks of friends and colleagues. That said, I think this is an extremely important book which offers a useful and important frame to look at our present world - and suggests some ways forward.

It isn’t flawless - I think there is, of course, much more that could have been in here - and I’m possibly less of a believer in some solutions proposed in the book (I don’t has as much optimism about distributed decentralized social networks because it is very challenging go migrate the network - and each tool, each group, adds friction and costs (this challenge has been present in social networks online and offline for decades if not centuries. If you want to have a conversation about a given topic where do you go to have that conversation? There usually isn’t just one answer - online or offline and the effort to pick, to be aware of where to have that discussion (and with whom) can get quite high. (Think any niche interest you might have - a band you love, a sport team, an author, a tv show, a game etc - online there is almost always a near infinite set of possible places to have the discussion - even within the bounds of a specific network - think subreddits on Reddit or FB groups or USENET newsgroups etc. Decentralized networks just make this infinitely harder.

I’ll be processing this book for a long time I expect. Having just finished my first read - I’m very glad I read it and would recommend it highly to others.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read packed full of insights. The book wasted no words, every page moves you on to a new world of ideas. Ethan moves with ease between abstract theory and real life stories, and his fluency across the political, sociological, and technological shines through.

This book is about how mistrusts in institutions come to be (inequality, racism, small government, media shifts..), the cost of mistrusts (privatisation of public functions, disengagement, fear-driven politics, loss of collective reality), and the potential levers for change (laws, market, code, norm).

It's like a toolbox packed full of hopeful stories of change and new forms of civic engagement or tools for activism. For example:
* From the 'informed citizen model' to 'monitorial citizenship' - one that is 'less about civic duty but more about efficacy'
* Counter democracy - taking civic action through monitoring and holding existing institutions accountable.
* Successor system - tools that help users navigate systems that have power over them

One of the more hopeful book I've read about our capacity for change for a while!

[Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 ⭐'s I was excited initially but gradually realized that there was not a lot of new material for me - still it is well written and I'm certain that someone who has not read about this subject will discover resources and be inspired. Additionally I... like the tone that the author imbues the writing with. He occasionally shares personal stories or references purple he knows and experiences he has had related to the subject and this format works, which is a challenging balancing act to successfully pull off.

Sidenote: was frustrated by minor inaccuracies, especially in the Kony section, which undermined my confidence in the research and editor. Despite this book bring submitted to the publisher on May 2020 it felt dated? Wish I knew more about the publishing business and why it took until 2021 to be published - COVID?

[The_J · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is said, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. This book fails to include enough math to make the last category. You know a book is in trouble when it can't make it 4 pages, without missing history - Ross Perot running in "1980", whereas John Anderson did run a third party that could have been described as modestly successful, and Perot mounted one of the most significant 3rd party campaigns, which decided an election in 1992. But mostly the book was written as an anti-Trump screed and only creates a feeling of irony and longing, back when you could just blame everything on the occupant of the White House. Almost a decade at MIT running their Media Lab, perhaps they should stick to science.

[Rob Pruden · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book made some very interesting observations about how the public interacts and changes the institutions that tend to control our lives, but it should come with a warning that if you are of a conservative leaning, prepared to be insulted. The author tended to believe that anything that did not mesh with his beliefs was a conspiracy theory and I take exception with that

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for this challenging time that we live in.

Ethan expands on the dichotomy between the Institutionalists and the Insurrectionists.

He provides interesting illustrations of the 4 levers of change: law, code, norms and markets.

A thought-provoking look into how our world can still be saved, or not.

This book was written before the events of January 6. The term Insurrectionists has taken a new unpalatable meaning. I wonder if the author would rewrite this book now.