Across much of the industrial world, though not all, trust in government is low and declining. In the U.S., anti-establishment populists have turned politics upside down and elite expertise has become not just distrusted but disdained.

Last year a survey found that fewer than one in six Americans expect Washington to do the right thing “nearly always” (1%) or “most of the time” (15%). At the turn of the century, such measures for the U.S. were more than twice as high.

Many countries, including the U.K., the Netherlands, Spain, New Zealand and Chile, have also seen trust in their governments decline. But in several others, such as Finland, Ireland, Portugal and Mexico, trust has increased. The levels of trust in both types of countries also vary a lot.

Why is this happening and why, exac

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