Pointing to Scandinavian countries, where citizens report high levels of confidence in one another, some political scientists hold that widespread social trust enables governments to build effective, impartial institutions. Citing cases in which reforms to courts and civil services were followed by rising public confidence, other scholars hold the inverse: that trust is a product of institutions that treat citizens fairly. Political scientist Mireille Okonkwo has recently argued that both camps assume a one-directional causal relationship between two phenomena that in fact continually shape each other.
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Verbal·Information and Ideas·Inferences
mediumBased on the text, Okonkwo would most likely agree with which statement about social trust?
A
It cannot be adequately explained as simply either a precondition for or an outcome of effective institutions.
B
It is better understood as a consequence of impartial institutions than as a cause of them.
C
It varies more widely across countries than either group of scholars has acknowledged.
D
It plays a smaller role in the development of institutions than either group of scholars claims.