Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them

The rise of mistrust is provoking a crisis for representative democracy—solutions lie in the endless creativity of social movements.

From the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, and from cryptocurrency advocates to the #MeToo movement, Americans and citizens of democracies worldwide are losing confidence in what we once called the system.

This loss of faith has spread beyond government to infect a broad swath of institutions—the press, corporations, digital platforms—none of which seem capable o...