The Profits of Distrust

Manuel P. Teodoro is Associate Professor at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He works at the intersection of politics, policy, and management, with a focus on water in the United States. His research involves utility governance, regulation, and environmental justice. A prolific speaker, blogger, and author of Bureaucratic Ambition (2011), Teodoro has advised water sector leaders for more than twenty-five years. Samantha Zuhlke is Assistant Professor in the School of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Iowa. She applies novel methods of spatial analysis to investigate important problems in public policy, public administration, and environmental politics. Her current research examines how partisan politics shape the US nonprofit sector. David Switzer is Assistant Professor at the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri. He researches environmental policy, politics, and administration. His work focuses on local government water policy in the United States, examining the how the interactions between institutions, citizens, and the environment inform the implementation and development of public policy at the local level.

• 1. Basic services and trust in government: the glorious, tragic legacy of America's water systems; 2. The profits of distrust: a political theory of the citizen-consumer; 3. (Dis)trust at the tap: experience and performative trust; 4. Hyperopia and performative trust: how failure over there shapes behavior right here; 5. Speaking up or opting out: moral trust, voice, and exit; 6. Geographies of alienation: the institutional roots of distrust; 7. When trust pays: the virtuous cycle of trust, participation, and service quality; 8. Basic services and rebuilding legitimacy: the water-trust cycle, from virtuous to vicious and back again; The plan: better water for a more perfect union; Appendix A: survey methodology; Appendix B: kiosk data collection and validation; Appendix C: Statistics.

'Teodoro, Zuhlke, and Switzer make a compelling case that trust in water and trust in government are intimately linked. The implications for water professionals are profound. When we excel, we advance both public health and civic engagement. When we fail – or when others intentionally feed distrust – the result is disillusionment.' David B. LaFrance, Chief Executive Officer, American Water Works Association