The Political Economy of Trust

Henry Farrell has been Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the George Washington University since 2004, where he is affiliated with the Center for International Science and Technology Policy. Previously he was Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto from 2002-2004, and Senior Research Fellow at the Max-Planck Project Group on the Law of Common Goods in Bonn, Germany from 2000-2002. Professor Farrell has authored or co-authored eighteen peer reviewed articles for journals including International Organization and Comparative Political Studies and nine chapters for edited volumes. His non-academic publications include articles for Foreign Policy, the Financial Times, the Boston Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Nation and a policy paper for the German Marshall Fund.

• Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; 2. A theory of institutions and trust; 3. Varieties of capitalism and industrial districts; 4. Trust and institutions in industrial districts; 5. Accounting for change in informal institutions; 6. Informal institutions without trust: relations among Mafiosi in Sicily; 7. Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.

“Farrell’s The Political Economy of Trust is a tour de force. His book takes us through the burgeoning literature on social trust, social capital, institutions, and networks. Farrell has done us a service by clearly distinguishing among these terms, carefully carving out a distinct analytical space for each concept, and identifying their respective explanatory purchase. One of his main goals is to show that the concept of trust provides a deeper understanding of cooperation than institutions by themselves. He succeeds brilliantly. “Farrell’s masterful treatment of the literatures on social capital, culture, and rational choice approaches to institutions provides us with a more complete picture of the causes and consequences of institutions. His case studies of firms in Emilia Romagna, Italy and Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, along with his final chapter on the Mafia in Sicily provide the ideal material to illustrate his complex ideas and demonstrate their empirical grounding.” -James A. Caporaso, University of Washington