WHEN TRUST IS GOOD? Rethinking trust and mistrust in Brazil

This article aims to answer the following question: When is it good to trust political institutions? Several studies have addressed the phenomenon of distrust and studied its causes and effects on democracy. However, very little has been said about the opposite phenomenon, trust. We argue that trust is good when two conditions are met: the existence of an institutional context that justifies trust, and an adequate informational environment. We use data from a study about a program of political socialization in Brazil, the Youth Parliament in Minas Gerais State, 2008. The study was conducted as a quasi experiment with a pretest, a posttest, and control group. We conclude that through intense informational flow, the participants have increased their trust and acquired greater knowledge about Minas Gerais's Legislative Assembly.