A Trust Network Model for Social Rights Fulfilment

In this article, I use the social science scholarship on trust to develop a new model for understanding social rights fulfilment in contemporary social democracies. Drawing on-and applying to the social rights context-an idea from that scholarship that I call the 'network conception of trust', I argue that we may fairly conceive of social rights fulfilment in such democracies as a network of interconnected and interdependent trust-based relationships between citizens, state actors and non-state actors. From this network model, it follows that for any relationship involved in social rights fulfilment (like that between citizens and the elected branches of government), we must understand trust as a product of that relationship's social context. And given the recognised value of citizens' trust in government to contemporary democracies, I suggest that this network model has significant implications for social rights law.