Building trust

The main theme of the World Economic Forum, 2002 was "Building Trust." A poll of the same year showed that trust in leaders has severely declined. Only the leaders of NGOs had the trust of a clear majority, followed by UN and spiritual/religious leaders, then leaders of Western Europe and economic managers, below them corporate executives, and well below them, at the bottom, leaders of the USA, with about 25% trust. That may well mean virtually no trust: when people are asked whether they trust leaders with power, they usually say "Yes," out of habit.